‘That’s your job’ – Lewis Hamilton left fuming by Mercedes strategy at Miami Grand Prix that saw him battle teammate George Russell

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Lewis Hamilton heading to Miami after a horror start to the season in the worst car Mercedes he has had will feel like Groundhog Day.

The Brit superstar is the most recognisable Formula 1 driver in America but the track in Florida has not been kind to him.


Miami 2022 was the first time Hamilton finished outside the top four in America

Getty

Hamilton is a six-time Grand Prix winner on United States soil and would have felt confident when Miami was introduced in 2022.

The seven-time world champion arrived at the Miami International Autodrome in desperate need of a strong performance.

Hamilton had disappeared from the public eye following the conclusion of the 2021 season after controversial safety car calls robbed him of a record-breaking eighth world title and handed Max Verstappen his first championship.

He returned for the start of the new campaign two years ago unable to put the disappointment behind him due to the 2022 rule changes.

Drastic aerodynamic regulations caused airflow issues under that year’s cars, and Mercedes’ struggles left them well off the pace.

Five races into the 2022 season, Hamilton came into Miami sixth in the standings – with his unsuccessful experimentations with the W13 leaving him 68 points behind then-leader Charles Leclerc.

Sixth is also where Hamilton qualified for the Grand Prix but thoughts of a fast start were extinguished at Lights Out.

Having locked up coming into Turn 1, more bad luck was to come as the 38-year-old found himself clipped by old foe Fernando Alonso.


Hamilton and Alonso make contact at race start

F1

The Briton insisted immediately that he had incurred damage from the contact, but the first signs of miscommunication followed as his team claimed the data showed no under-performance.

Hamilton battled back to sixth but then his dreaded safety car curse reared its ugly head once more near the back end of the race.

McLaren’s Lando Norris and AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly tangled on lap 41 to bunch up the grid for the following five laps.

Hamilton’s teammate George Russell – who had qualified a lowly 12th – was the chief beneficiary having been running on the hard tyre.

Russell successfully rolled the dice on staying on track and waiting for a safety car and when it occurred he remerged behind Hamilton.

The latter was asked if he wanted to follow suit but snapped back on the radio: “You tell me man (if we should pit), don’t leave it to me.

“If you think I can, but I don’t want to lose the position.”

“Ok, we recommend staying out,” Hamilton’s race engineer Peter Bonnington responded.


Hamilton and Russell had an epic duel in Miami

Sky Sports


The Mercedes teammates went wheel-to-wheel from a safety car restart

Sky Sports


Russell overtook Hamilton off-track before later making the move stick

Sky Sports

From the restart, as in Abu Dhabi six months earlier, Hamilton found himself a sitting duck from the car behind on older tyres.

Hamilton initially did superbly to force Russell wide at the hairpin on lap 49 and maintain his position, before his old teammate Valtteri Bottas going wide at Turn 17 allowed them both to pass.

Their duel continued when Russell overtook his veteran teammate at Turn 11 but was forced to concede it straight back having left the track.

It only proved to delay the inevitable retook P5 a few laps later, which is where he crossed the chequered flag ahead of Hamilton.

“I think [Lewis] was between a rock and a hard place because the safety car clearly came out in a situation that wasn’t favourable for him and was favourable for George in the back,” said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.

However, Hamilton doubled down on his criticism of the strategy post-race after fuming at being put in a position to allow Russell, 13 years his junior, to leave him in the dust easily.


Hamilton called out Mercedes’ bad decisions on the team radio

Sky Sports

“In that scenario, I have no clue where everyone is,” Hamilton said. “So when the team says ‘it’s your choice’, I don’t have the information to make the decision.

“That’s what your job is – make the decision for me. You’ve got all the details I don’t. That’s what you rely on the guys for but they didn’t give it to me and I don’t understand it.”

He added: “I’m excited to at some stage take a step forwards, which we haven’t yet.”

Two years later Mercedes returns to Miami still trailing Red Bull and Ferrari in a desperate attempt to return to the front of the grid.

But maybe it can be one step forward for the Silver Arrows at the celebrity-infused track before their own biggest superstar takes two steps back – to Ferrari…


Source: TalkSport.com Motorsport