F1 pundit changes tune on Lewis Hamilton Ferrari team orders

Ferrari should be taking a page out of the Mercedes Dutch Grand Prix playbook and use team orders to support Lewis Hamilton in his title quest.

That is the opinion of former Aston Martin and Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer, who has shifted his stance. Only last month, Szafnauer was fully against the use of team orders at Ferrari, in Hamilton’s favour, at that stage in the season.

Ferrari not using every tactic for Lewis Hamilton, says Szafnauer

Hamilton remains the closest threat outside of Mercedes to Kimi Antonelli’s title push. The gap between them is 59 points.

Hamilton was left frustrated at the Dutch Grand Prix as Ferrari hesitated on a call to swap him and teammate Charles Leclerc around. Hamilton ultimately missed out on a podium to Antonelli’s Mercedes teammate, George Russell, who is now level on points with Hamilton.

Speaking on the High Performance Racing podcast, Szafnauer said that the iconic Ferrari team is one which prioritises the drivers’ title. The team is not doing all it can to realise this ambition with Hamilton, says Szafnauer.

The American did stress, however, the difficulty of getting split-second decisions correct in the heat of battle.

“To me, you’ve got to focus on what your objective is,” said Szafnauer.

“At a team, where a drivers’ world championship, for them, is more meaningful than the constructors’ world championship. They’ve always been like that.

“So, if that’s your objective, then you make every decision in order to meet that objective. They’re not doing it.

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing. When you’re there, and you’ve got to make quick decisions, sometimes they are not as clear to you as when, on Monday, you’re looking back and you say, ‘Ah, we should have done that.’

“I think Lewis is probably thinking today, ‘Had I gotten ahead a little bit earlier, I may have finished on that podium.'”

Put to him that all of this is good for the championship leader Antonelli, Szafnauer agreed: “For sure.”

Mercedes also faced a team order crossroads in Zandvoort, but took a different path, moving Russell aside in the closing stages to send Antonelli through into second on his fresher tyres.

For Ferrari, that should have been a case of watch and learn, according to Szafnauer.

This represents a U-turn in Szafnauer’s opinion. Following the British Grand Prix, he had been staunchly against the idea of Ferrari swapping Hamilton and Leclerc around when opportunities arose, to boost Hamilton’s title quest.

“They did it. It was the right thing to do from a team perspective,” Szafnauer said in reference to Mercedes’ Dutch GP switcheroo. “They didn’t lose any points by swapping them.

“Kimi, who is leading the world championship, got more points.

“It’s that kind of stuff that Ferrari should be doing with Lewis.”

More on Lewis Hamilton from PlanetF1.com

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Lewis Hamilton urges Ferrari to ‘turn up the heat’ against Mercedes

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur moved to explain the Scuderia’s secret Hamilton strategy in Zandvoort, accepting that how things play out can be “frustrating” for the drivers.

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Continue reading: Vasseur explains Ferrari secret strategy after Lewis Hamilton frustration