Lewis Hamilton would prefer to see two-stop races become the norm in Formula 1 because they are “more exciting”, even if it comes at the price of Mercedes losing its dominant advantage.
The six-time F1 World Champion has repeatedly said he would prefer a close challenge over a dominant race, and that’s what Pirelli delivered during last weekend’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, which was won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who started down in fourth on the grid.
It was a result of Pirelli bringing a softer range of tyres compared to previous races this season, which forced drivers into making two or even three stops, compared to the usual one, which opened up the opportunity for different strategies.
Verstappen, who started on the hard tyre, was able to pass both Mercedes’, which started on the medium compound, to claim his first win of the season.
Although Hamilton lost out because of it, he has called on Pirelli to push for more two-stop races, even if it costs Mercedes their performance advantage.
“We’ve come here with the softer tyres which has made the racing more exciting,” said the Briton.
“As we said about the two-stop, part of me doesn’t want to propose we go with softer tyres moving forward because maybe we’ll be in this position again, but ultimately one-stops suck.”
“We should never be doing one-stops in this sport, it’s never been good watching as a fan, it makes it more exciting when there’s more.”
Asked specifically about that bringing Red Bull closer to Mercedes, Hamilton said he prefers the closer competition.
“I think it’s great. I want to have races where they are challenging. Obviously the Red Bull has been…seems to be quite close in race conditions to us and [they were] stronger so it shows they don’t have as bad a package as people said.
“I think it’s good. It’ll be interesting to see the progression through the year and I definitely won’t overlook them. I need to keep a close eye on them and keep working to push forwards because it’s not going to be easy by any means.
“I don’t think my team has that mentality anyway, we just keep out heads down, and yeah I was hopeful today – wishful thinking – that we’d have some sort of race towards the end but maybe in the future we’ll get to have some, a bit.”
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