Lewis Hamilton claimed that he has never seen a race as entertaining as the Monaco Grand Prix today.
Beginning and finishing the race in seventh place was the seven-time world champion. The majority of the field chose not to pit for the duration of the race since an early red light allowed them to perform their required tyre change after just one lap.Hamilton had the potential to earn the bonus point for fastest lap during the race since, in contrast to many other drivers, he performed a live pit stop. Still, he felt bitter at the absence of rivalry.
He said on the official Formula 1 channel, “Everyone switched over to the other tyre because of the crash and just managed at a really slow pace.” It was undoubtedly one of the most boring races I have ever participated in. But that’s Monaco, you understand.
Director of trackside engineering for the team Andrew Shovlin acknowledged that the red flag’s early presence hurt their plan. Both drivers had to change to the medium compound for the duration of the race because they had begun on the hard tires.
When the red flag appeared, Hamilton appeared to express worries about this tactic by telling the crew, “I told you so,” as he entered the pits.
A red flag or Safety Car intervention after the first four had stopped would have given an opportunity to bring both cars on the podium, according to Shovlin, who acknowledged that the tactic had “pros and cons.”
A lap one red flag, though, would be uncomfortable. As soon as the race started, this is precisely what happened to us. Thus, we were forced to attempt to reach the finish line with the medium tire.
“This was pretty easy to handle in the end because most cars were doing a fair bit of management,” he said. The progress we’ve made since Friday is encouraging, as George Russell looked to have strong pace in the dying moments and was able to defend well against Max Verstappen. From a tire perspective, Lewis’s late stop wasn’t necessary, but it did allow us to claim an additional point for the quickest lap.
Mercedes acknowledged that they miscommunicated with Hamilton during his pit stop, which prevented him from pushing as hard as he could have and allowed Max Verstappen to stop ahead of him and apply pressure to George Russell. The Red Bull driver, though, was unable to go around it.
