Lewis Hamilton request denied as Ferrari strategy stand-off emerges in Austria

Lewis Hamilton was convinced that a three-stop strategy, starting on soft tyres, was the way to go at the Austrian Grand Prix.

However, according to Hamilton, Ferrari got cold feet on that idea, and so started him and Charles Leclerc on the mediums. Hamilton is convinced that this was a “suboptimal” strategy, though accepted that tyre management hamstrung Ferrari at the Red Bull Ring.

Lewis Hamilton reveals Ferrari Austrian GP strategy clash

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A dramatic qualifying left Ferrari in a promising position for the Austrian Grand Prix. Leclerc would launch from second, alongside polesitter George Russell, while Hamilton was third on the grid.

However, both drivers found themselves falling backwards through the race. Hamilton finished P5, while Leclerc, sporting some front wing damage, was P8.

With tyre degradation expected to be high in scorching hot conditions at the Red Bull Ring, most drivers started on the mediums. That included Hamilton and Leclerc.

But, Hamilton – who executed a three-stop strategy to win in Barcelona – would have drunk from that well again had he got his way. He did not.

“For some reason we just lacked pace,” Hamilton admitted to PlanetF1.com and others after the Austrian Grand Prix.

“But this morning, in the strategy meeting, they said it’s a two-stop. Three-stop is four seconds slower. Last night, and this morning, they gave us that information.

“But I was dead set, it was a three for me, because I thought the deg was going to be super high, particularly as the track temperature today was the highest we’ve had it in a long, long time, mid 50s to 60 degree track temperature, so I thought the deg was going to be massive for us.

“I wanted to start on a soft, but the team were nervous, and so they pushed for us to start on the medium, which ultimately, I think was suboptimal.

“I think maybe we probably would have been around the same place. Maybe, just maybe, if I started on the soft, I would have got fourth.”

Hamilton and Leclerc eventually migrated to a three-stopper as the SF-26s roughed up the tyres.

Hamilton was first of the frontrunners to pit, at the end of Lap 12, from P2.

Quizzed on that short opening stint, Hamilton said: “I was good with George for a second and then he just started pulling away. I’m in his tow but he’s just eking out a little bit on the straights, and then my rears went off very, very quick.”

Hamilton was unsure why the “balance was like that,” adding that it was “really tough to hold on to,” triggering his early pit stop.

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With Hamilton confirming that his Ferrari SF-26 did not like the hard, C3 tyre either, he concluded that: “It doesn’t matter what tyre you put on our car today, they were going to drop off quite quick.”

Hamilton dropped a position to third in the Drivers’ standings after Austria. The gap to P1 Kimi Antonelli is now 46 points going into Hamilton’s home race, the British Grand Prix, which he has won a record nine times.

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