Missed out on July 1st’s Formula 1 news? Catch up on today’s three top stories from the F1 world!
Why Ferrari did not listen to HamiltonÂ
Lewis Hamilton did not want to pit on Lap 51 during the Austrian Grand Prix. He said he felt as if his tyres and race pace were okay.
However, Jerome d’Ambrosio, the acting team principal for the weekend, admitted, “To be honest there was no incentive in doing anything different because McLaren’s were clearly far ahead and George [Russell] quite far behind so we were in between them with both cars and we just did a standard optimal strategy and that was the most straightforward thing to do.”
Charles Leclerc had pitted just before Hamilton. There is no guarentee that allowing Hamilton to stay out would have put him on the podium.
“In the end [I] just saw Lewis now and you look at the numbers and yeah, that’s what made sense.”
Piastri defends pit stop choiceÂ
Oscar Piastri decided to stay out after Lando Norris pitted. While he felt that was the right call, in the end, he hit the finish line second.
He said, “Like I said before, I think I was always going to lose time by pitting second. I had past experience of being just stuck outside DRS, and that was a pretty painful place to be in the past. So, I didn’t really want to be there again.”
Piastri did lose out on time by making the decision to not go in a lap after Norris. It was a combination of a lock-up that caused a bald spot on his tyres and that, that left him at a bigger disadvantage.
“With hindsight, maybe you can say it wasn’t the right call, but there are a lot of things you can say in hindsight.”
Hamilton reveals Mercedes’ development timeline
When talking about the SF-25 and the issues he is having, Hamilton revealed a tidbit of information he had on Mercedes. One of the biggest questions of the season is when to start focusing solely on 2026.
While he did not have much to say about Ferrari, he said “I’m sure all the teams are doing that already. I know Mercedes is already super focused on next year. The key is going to be developing that engine and making sure that [we’re not behind] whoever comes up with the right philosophy for next year suspension wise and everything.”
Mercedes has been one of the only teams to have something positive to say about the new regualtions while Hamiltons teammate, Charles Leclerc has claimed they have created one of the least fun cars to drive.
