Hamilton: “If the team had told me I would have lost my position, I wouldn’t have pitted”

A nice podium, but… Certainly Lewis Hamilton would have signed up for a podium in “his” Silverstone, considering Ferrari’s expected difficulties which were not confirmed once the wheels were on the asphalt.
But there is no doubt that Hamilton was not the picture of happiness after the race, both for having lost P2 due to the pit stop in the hope – which proved vain – of the Safety Car returning to the pits before the checkered flag, and probably for having seen Charles Leclerc, his teammate, triumph. And a Hamilton not completely satisfied with a podium – the fifth of the season – is definitely positive news for Ferrari, which last season had never seen the seven-time world champion take the stage at the awards ceremony, in an extremely disappointing 2025 and below expectations. Wouldn’t Hamilton have stopped? There was talk of the P2 lost due to the pit stop under the Safety Car regime: the Ferrari driver was clearly asked the question whether or not he regretted the pitstop.
Hamilton’s response was a bit sharp: “What difference does it make? The team asked me to stop. I thought that, with the pitstop, I would have maintained my position. If they had told me: ‘You stop and lose your position’, I wouldn’t have done it.” A joke also about the jump start, which cost him a 5-second penalty served during the first pit stop: “My hand moved suddenly. I’m not sure where it went, I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t even tell my hand to do it. It happens. It’s happened to me very few times in 380 starts.”
Lewis Hamilton is currently third in the drivers’ championship with 147 points, 32 less than leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes.

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-07-07 05:00:00