According to ex-Formula 1 racer and Dutch Grand Prix promoter Jan Lammers, Lewis Hamilton should have taken more responsibility after Mercedes‘ disaster of a race in Monaco.
Lammers thinks that it was not just the team who were to blame, but the Mercedes driver’s seventh-place finish was highly disappointing too.
Even after pole-sitter, Charles Leclerc had to exit from the race, Hamilton finished the race in the same position that he started from.
Two reasons for Mercedes disaster
There are two assumed reasons for this fiasco – the first being that the Monaco circuit is incredibly hard to overtake on and the second was a botched strategy to call the Brit early for a tyre change.
Apart from expressing his disappointment on the team radio, Hamilton went on to say that they had a ‘really, really poor performance’.
The whole weekend in Monaco saw Mercedes underperforming. Things took a more grim turn after teammate Valtteri Bottas had to retire during the race after a failed pitstop.
What did Lammers say?
Lammers seems to think that Hamilton should take more responsibility rather than pin the entire blame on the team.
“I think his behavior is pretty inconsistent,” Lammers told RacingNews365.com.
“We give him all the credit when he wins, or when he takes pole position.
“Fans and media are full of praise and give him all the plaudits, but then when things don’t go well one weekend, he blames his team. That’s not chic.”
Things went haywire during qualifying
The 62-year-old thinks that Hamilton should analyze his performance from Saturday.
“It went wrong for Hamilton in qualifying,” he added.
“He can complain about the team and the strategy and so on, but if he had driven a little bit better on Saturday, the team wouldn’t have had this problem either.
“So the suggestion that he couldn’t have done anything better himself was pretty pretentious. That was just the wrong comment and he didn’t make any fans.”
Verstappen adds to Hamilton’s pressure
Lammers also seems to think that Max Verstappen is also a major reason for the significant pressure on Hamilton.
“Up until now, he [Hamilton] was exemplary and comfortable in the competition with Max, but you get to know him when he has a bad weekend,” stated Lammers.
“He had a bad weekend, himself and the team. If he had just qualified better, the team would not have been so on edge.
“And the fact is he just let [Valtteri] Bottas drive him to ruin. He is criticising the team for bad decisions as a result of his own bad qualifying. I think that’s very wrong,” he concluded.
Let us know what you think in the comments below!
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spot on, Jan