Mercedes has sent a warning to Lewis Hamilton over his Turkish GP rant.
Hamilton’s unhappiness with the pit stop confusion at Istanbul caused him to rage on his radio. The team bore the brunt of his angry outburst, and it generated controversy among fans.
Some sided with Hamilton, saying that Mercedes has messed up when he was under pressure. Others took the side of the team, and said that Hamilton’s undoing was his own fault.
Data was later revealed showing that the team’s call to pit was indeed the right, albeit a late call. Having established that their driver was in the wrong, Mercedes sent a warning to Hamilton over his Turkish GP rant.
As quoted by the Mirror, Mercedes Chief Technical Officer James Allison said, “As ever with strategy, at the end of the race, it’s always obvious what would have been the perfect lap (to pit on).
“However, if we look at it overall, the best time to have stopped would have been around the (lap) 36, 37 mark, that was when Valtteri and Verstappen stopped.
“Had Lewis done the same and then treated his tyres nice and gently, then in all likelihood he would have come in a strong fourth, maybe be able to pressurise Perez for third and perhaps overtake him.
“When we eventually did call Lewis in, it was because the lap time chart that we use to make our predictions was telling us that it was not looking good.
“We were looking at something that was somewhere in the region of seventh, eighth place, based on the way in which the tyres were progressively degrading,” he concluded.
Cleared up
Many suspected that the fallout of the race would cause tension between Hamilton and Mercedes. However, that has been put to bed by both driver and team.
Hamilton took to Instagram the day after the race and revealed that they were back on the same page.
Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff, meanwhile, insisted that he had “no problem at all with tough conversations on the radio.”
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