Hamilton Shares His Honest Thoughts After Dutch Grand Prix Weekend
F1
Mercedes F1 driver Lewis Hamilton discussed his strategy, potential finishing position, and overall feeling about his car after the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix.
The seven-time World Champion finished the 15th round of the season at Circuit Zandvoort in P8 after starting from P14. He had to start so far back due to his poor qualifying result and the additional 3-place grid penalty for impeding Sergio Perez.
Lewis Hamilton wrote about the race in the Netherlands before it even began, knowing he was too far back to compete for the podium. However, speaking to the media after the race, he suggested he enjoyed it despite not being able to score more points.
At the end of the day, he showed some nice overtakes, and importantly, in comparison to his teammate, he finished right behind George Russell, who started ten positions higher up the grid- from P4. Speaking to the media after the race, he started by discussing car balance:
Ultimately, I think the car felt better [before]. Even though I had a lot of understeer in FP1, the car felt great - and even for FP2.
"And then we made this change overnight because we had so much understeer, and then it just flipped on its knife edge - it just flipped onto the other side."
"So we backed out a bunch of wing for the race and I was progressing. I felt like I was moving in the right direction, but just too far back, unfortunately."
While he couldn't see the pace of the cars in front, the 39-year-old Mercedes driver suggested he felt he could have finished in P4 or higher if he had qualified where his teammate did.
"I think if I qualified where George [Russell] was [in fourth], I would have finished at least there, if not further ahead."
Race Strategy
Regarding his strategy, the seven-time World Champion knew he had to try something different from everyone else if he wanted to finish high, so from the start of the race, he was supposed to do a two-stop.
In the middle, he decided he would like to try and go for a one stop, but then he flat-spotted his tires, which meant he had to stay on the two-stop strategy.
"We planned to do a two-stop and started on the soft; it was a very good tire."
"The hard tire was fairly decent; it was really difficult to see what I needed to do and whether to push – I was on a two – so trying to use up the tire but wasn't sure whether or not we might go for a one."
"I had a bit of a lock up, which meant I had to stay on my strategy. Probably if I'd had done one stop, I might have managed it a bit better, maybe finish one place ahead."
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