Lewis Hamilton blames his team’s pit-stop strategy but believes in his consistency – Formula 1
2008 Formula 1 world champion, Lewis Hamilton has blamed his team’s pit-stop strategy in Malaysian Grand prix for his bad performance. The British driver said that he certainly has the speed and consistency going into the season but the right combination
is missing.
Hamilton has twice been neck to neck with the Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, but every time the reliability and bad luck has kept him behind. Hamilton’s MP4-26 was damaged in the Australian Grand Prix after which he gave up the ghost behind Vettel.
In the Malaysian Grand Prix, Hamilton was overtaken by Renault’s Nick Heidfeld after which he lost momentum. Hamilton’s pit-stop strategy was not efficient enough as they thought of only doing two stops to Red Bull’s three. Hamilton was penalised by race
stewards, because he was found guilty in an overtaking manoeuvre involving Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. Hamilton and Alonso got 20 seconds added to their original times after which Hamilton dropped down to eighth place.
Hamilton said, “I qualified second again, and in the race it was there, but it just didn't go well for me. The strategy wasn't perfect, a pit-stop wasn't perfect, but that is the way it goes.” The driver added that his concentration is on finishing and winning
races in 2011 season.
“I had a few DNFs last year, and the majority of those were because of mistakes or incidents, and a couple of others were mechanical problems,” added Hamilton. Hamilton’s team-mate Jenson Button also said that Vettel’s start to 2011 season is a dream come
true because the German is already far ahead of everyone in terms of pace and points.
Button sits in second place behind Vettel with a deficit of 24 points. 2009 champion said that Vettel is the most consistent driver so far in the 2011 season.
The next race is due in China on the 17th of April and McLaren team have some upgrades in the pipeline for the shanghai Grand Prix as team boss Martin Whitmarsh explained.
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