As sections of the media go into overdrive, claiming that we now have a battle for the championship on our hands, based on the evidence of last Sunday's 'perfect storm', despite the fact that the move would compromise his and his team's domination, Lewis Hamilton believes the sport must move away from one-stoppers.

With the tyre failures of the British Grand Prix still fresh in mind, the sport went into the 70th Anniversary race with trepidation, the result of the decision to stick with the proposal that the compounds for the second Silverstone race be a step softer than the previous week.

Pirelli's call on the teams to use common sense was never on the cards, and though the requisite tyre strategy was to cost him, Lewis Hamilton believes the necessity to stop twice was good for the sport and its fans.

Sunday's race saw both Mercedes drivers struggling, even on fresh rubber following their stops, while Max Verstappen, the only driver in the leading ten starters to begin the race on hards, eventually came out on top.

"I was trying to manage but I was trying to keep up with Valtteri, to be honest, and I was struggling, like, within three laps with the rears," said the world champion, "so yes, (I was) managing (my tyres) but it wasn't doing anything to help the issue.

"So then I started to lose ground to Valtteri and yeah, I've got to look into that because it's rare also for me to have as bad as I'd had. Usually I'm on the slightly better end of bad day but today was worse."

Asked about the degradation, he said: "We haven't had deg like this before. So, it's big.

"We've come here with the softer tyres which, I think, has made the race even more exciting as we set about a two stop.

"Part of me doesn't want to propose that we go with softer tyres moving forwards because maybe we'll be in this position again," he admitted, "but ultimately, one-stop sucks.

"We should never be doing one-stops, I think in this sport," he added. "It's never been good watching as a fan. It makes it more exciting when there's more."

Aware that such a move would increasingly bring Verstappen and Red Bull into the game, he said: "I think it's great for... as I said before, I want to have races where they're challenging like today so I'm excited to watch this race.

"Obviously the Red Bull seems to be quite close in race conditions to us and obviously today is stronger so it shows they don't have as bad a package as perhaps people had said in the past but I think it's good.

"It will be interesting to see the progression through the rest of the year and I definitely will not overlook them. I think we've got to keep a close eye on them and keep working to push forwards because I don't think it's going to be easy by any means.

"But I don't think my team has that mentality anyway so we just keep our heads down. I was hopeful today that maybe we would have that - wishful thinking, but hoping to have some sort of race towards the end, but maybe in the future we will get to have some, a bit more."

LATEST NEWS

more news >

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

Click to go to the main galleries section

READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Pavlo, 12/08/2020 13:20

"It’s totally inappropriate to blame Pirelli, they made the tires they were asked to make and did really well. Just wondering how long will they keep risking their image.
Silverstone showed that Mercedes just did their job better than any other team. Given the tyre spec, they designed the car to use all of it, which gives massive advantage compared to others who have abundant reliability. And in the worst case they were “just” competitive and it required all the talent from Max and RedBull strategy to beat them. Perfect balance.
"

Rating: Positive (1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by Wokingchap, 12/08/2020 8:51

"Time to get rid of Pirelli, their tyres and excuses are rubbish. "

Rating: Negative (-2) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

3. Posted by ciguhuba, 12/08/2020 6:14 (moderated by an Adminstrator, 12/08/2020 6:48)

"This comment was removed by an administrator as it was judged to have broken the site's posting rules and etiquette."

Rating: Neutral (0)

4. Posted by Egalitarian, 11/08/2020 23:28

"@Superbird. I agree. The only thing I would add, no mandatory pit stops. If a team can get through a whole race on the one set of tyres, I say go for it, but the single supplier must be obliged to supply a tyre capable of that."

Rating: Negative (-1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

5. Posted by Superbird70, 11/08/2020 22:50

"What would be nice would be if Pirelli provided the exact three dry weather compounds for every race and jut let the teams risk mange the tire pressures to suit the cars and different driving styles."

Rating: Positive (2) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

Hamilton: "One-stops suck"

LATEST NEWS

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST IMAGES

POST A COMMENT

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

Share this page