Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur has detailed how the team losing GPS data thwarted Lewis Hamilton‘s strive to secure a top-three result in the Formula 1 British Grand Prix.
Hamilton’s astonishing consecutive podium run at Silverstone since 2014 came to an end in his inaugural race on home soil with Ferrari as he finished in fourth place.
Despite Max Verstappen and George Russell ending up behind him come the chequered flag, Hamilton and Ferrari lost out on third place to Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg.
Hamilton lost multiple places when a deluge descended on Lap 12, but he had recovered as the track dried to be courting Hulkenberg heading into the closing stages.
But while Ferrari initiated an undercut attempt with a switch to slicks on Lap 41, the track remained damp in places and Hamilton trailed wide at Village on his out lap.
That would prove detrimental as Hulkenberg emerged on the next lap with a greater advantage, which the German preserved to the end to take his maiden F1 podium.
However, Vasseur highlighted that the complexities involved in making strategic decisions in changeable conditions create an even finer line between risk and reward.
“I think you can say now that it was probably one lap too early, also because he went straight in Turns 3-4 and lost four or five seconds in these two corners,” Vasseur told media including Motorsport Week post-race.
“I think it was [Fernando] Alonso who pitted before, and it was already faster on some corners than all the guys on Intermediate.
“It’s the kind of situation that if you want that the others are doing the move before you, it’s always too late.
“And I think it’s quite easy after the race to say that [the] first pitstop could have been better to stop one lap before; the second pitstop to stop one lap later.
“But honestly, on this, when you have to take the decision on the pit wall, it’s a very tricky one, because you always have to be into the anticipation.”
The Ferrari pit wall not gaining access to where Hamilton was situated on track throughout the entire race hampered the team’s attempt to pit him at the optimal time.
“We lost the GPS of Lewis all the race,” Vasseur disclosed. “It means that we are completely blind and didn’t know where the car was. It was a difficult one.”
READ MORE – Lewis Hamilton seeking sit down with Ferrari designers amid ‘unbelievably tricky’ F1 British GP
