Lewis Hamilton Q&A: I drove my heart out

From his poor qualifying position, to a questionable strategy call by McLaren, to Mark Webber’s overly-optimistic passing attempt, Australia hasn’t been Lewis Hamilton’s weekend. Here Hamilton reviews his race and looks ahead to next weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix…

Q: Lewis, can you sum up your last lap?
Lewis Hamilton: It was one of the more unsatisfying races of my life, and unfortunately due to the strategy, I was put further back when finally I got taken out by Mark Webber. I was driving my heart out today and I deserve better than what I ended up with, but for sure I will keep fighting at the next race.

Q: Do you think that you deserved better from the team at the last stop?
LH: Well, I know that the guys always do a fantastic job. It’s just the strategy was not right. Everyone in front of me did one stop and for some reason I did two.

Q: Did you choose to come in? Who told you to do so?
LH: I don’t know, we’ll find out.

Q: You had such a great start…
LH: Yes, I had a great race in general - a really, really great race. The car was good even though I lost a bit of downforce with a bit of damage to the car. But otherwise it was a solid race. Obviously this was not my weekend.

Q: You were right behind Renault’s Robert Kubica, so why did you have to stop? LH: My tyres were great. We’ve clearly lost a one-two today and a podium for me, as I had the pace to overtake Kubica. But we have to look forward.

Q: You say that the strategy ruined your race, can you be a bit more precise?
LH: Well, I was in P3 and everyone else didn’t stop - but I stopped. I had already stopped once, and my tyres were fine and they would have lasted. Maybe I would have struggled a bit towards the end - but that is what all the other guys did. I was brought in for another stop, even though I would have preferred to stay out, but I didn’t question the decision because I trusted that was the right one. After pitting again I had a 20-second gap to catch up and then I was taken out by Mark. All that wasn’t cool.

Q: What happened with you and Webber?
LH: I would say that Mark’s move was not really looking forward. He didn’t think clearly and took us out. That was it.

Q: How motivated are you for the Malaysia race? Especially given your team mate Jenson Button’s excellent win…
LH: I think this win was great for the team - and congratulations to Jenson - he did a good job. Fingers crossed that the race in Malaysia will be better.

I agree with him the team botched the call by calling him in, especially since he was right behind Kubica. He (webber too) made the race much more interesting than it would have been, I couldn't believe he made all that time back up after that STUPID 2nd pitstop.

F1 has to do something about the dirty air to make it easier for these cars to follow unless we'll have more situations like when Hamilton & Webber caught up to the prancing horses, it was nail biting for sure but faster cars shouldn't need 5 laps to pass.

P.S. Lewis needs a publicist I know some of you guys are going to rip him a new one for critizing his team but I think he had the right to and I'm sure his engineers and his team know the messed up too.

 

he has every right to criticize his team, i don't see anything wrong with what he has said in this interview. he had a storming pace right up until he caught up with the ferraris. alonso was worried, remember what he radioed?

 

I don't think any of us doubt that he would've finished at least 2nd had he not gone in for that second stop. I don't know if he would've been able to catch Button, but who knows.

I don't think he said anything wrong or in the wrong way in this interview.. Everyone knew almost immediately that this second stop was going to put him at a huge disadvantage. If I recall, his second stop was on lap 31 and no way were his tires completely shot at that point. Had they let him go on those tires for a few more laps they would've realized he didn't need a second stop at all.