Lewis Hamilton questions Ferrari in ‘opened the door’ penalty claim

Lewis Hamilton would “never” have made that third and final pit stop at the Hungarian Grand Prix, but trusted the call from Ferrari.

In hindsight, Hamilton felt that strategy to stop under Virtual Safety Car conditions was the wrong call. It also “opened the door” for his penalty which followed. Hamilton did though express gratitude to Ferrari after a strong first-half to F1 2026.

Lewis Hamilton challenges Ferrari strategy at Hungarian GP

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When Oscar Piastri’s McLaren came to a halt, triggering the VSC, Ferrari pitted both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton had been catching Piastri, while Max Verstappen was homing in on them both in the podium battle.

Verstappen gained two positions from Piastri’s DNF and Hamilton stopping. He was up to P2. Hamilton was fourth as the racing resumed, having also narrowly lost track position to Kimi Antonelli.

The Ferraris were unable to clear Antonelli, and to make matters worse for Hamilton, he was hit with a five-second penalty for speeding by 0.1 km/h in the pit lane. That dropped him behind Leclerc to fifth in the final classification.

Hamilton was not best pleased by that Ferrari strategy.

“I definitely don’t think we should have taken the stop,” Hamilton told Sky F1.

“The call came literally just before the pit lane entry and I didn’t have time to debate and you’ve got to trust the decision that has been taken.

“In hindsight, my tyres were totally fine. I was probably going to lose out to Max but I think I could have kept third at least.

“Then just opened up the door to the penalty that I got in the end.”

Hamilton was further quizzed on Ferrari’s Hungarian GP strategy when he spoke with PlanetF1.com and other media post-race.

“I would never have stopped, because then I was giving up track position,” said Hamilton.

“We probably would have lost out to Max. He was on fresher tyres. Maybe in that last stint.

“We may have been able to hold on to P2. He was catching me. Most likely it would have been a P3.”

Hamilton had been due to start from second on the grid, but incurred a three-place grid drop for impeding Oscar Piastri during qualifying.

Hamilton felt he “had the pace probably to compete at least for the top two and top three.

“I think if we hadn’t had the penalty yesterday, we probably would have been in a much better position at the end.”

Hamilton summarised his Hungarian Grand Prix as: “Pretty bad. Pretty frustrating.”

More on Lewis Hamilton from PlanetF1.com

FIA reveals extent of Hamilton infringement after fourth penalty in three weekends

How Ferrari lost Hungary podium as strategy and mistakes mask promising pace

But, Hamilton stressed that there are “lots of positives” to take from the first-half of the season, as he heads into the summer break P2 in the Drivers’ Championship standings, 50 points behind Kimi Antonelli.

Hamilton did add to Sky F1 that he is “massively grateful to the team because they have really done a great job in this first-half.”

Hamilton won the Barcelona Grand Prix and has claimed a further four podium results so far in his title challenge.

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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