Hamilton was asked how he would handle his Ferrari pit wall after Sunday’s chaotic race at Sepang, and his answer was six words long.
“Yeah, not going to go to the casino with the guys.”
The joke landed because the gamble had worked, but only after Hamilton rejected the pit wall’s attempt to pull him out of it. On lap five of the rain-hit race, held at Sepang for the first time since 2017, Ferrari asked him to pit for intermediates. He refused and stayed out on the soft slicks he had started on.
A tyre call that pitched him to 18th
Hamilton started from second on the grid, but Ferrari’s choice to send him out on dry rubber on a visibly damp track quickly unravelled. He tumbled to 18th and was more than a minute off the leaders by the end of the opening stint, according to Sky Sports.
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The British driver said the pre-race debate had gone the wrong way from his point of view. He had walked the pit lane, seen standing water and told the pit wall it was still wet.
“I said, ‘Look, there was a lot of spray on the laps to the grid.’ And I went into the pit lane, looked at the ground, I was like, ‘It’s still wet.’ I went to the pit wall, and I was like, ‘It’s still wet.’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, but it’s because it’s been so long, it’s definitely going to dry up real quick. And maybe we’re already in the crossover,’” Hamilton told reporters.
By the time Ferrari came back on the radio on lap five with the call to pit for intermediates, Hamilton had already decided the only way out was through.
“I was like, ‘No, we’ve already made another 26 seconds. What’s the difference from that with one minute 40 or whatever?’ I was down. So I was like, ‘Let’s just wait it out to the track to dry,’” he said.
Hamilton passes Hadjar with three laps left
Two safety car periods reshaped the race, one on lap nine for Valtteri Bottas and another in the closing stages for Alex Albon’s stranded Williams, and Hamilton used both to work his way back into the fight.
With three laps to go he passed Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar for third behind race winner Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli, giving Ferrari a podium their own strategy had seemed to throw away.
Hamilton called the result a mixed bag.
“I think it’s bittersweet. We had an opportunity and ultimately didn’t maximise it,” he said.
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He was warmer about the mechanics than the strategists, and signalled the lap-five standoff would be worked through in private.
“Really good pit stops from my guys in the garage and then good strategy.”
“We’ll definitely have an open dialogue.”
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