Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari need to sit down for a “difficult” conversation, believes Bernie Collins, after back-to-back Formula 1 strategy errors.
Hamilton and Ferrari have endured a string of difficult results at Sepang and Singapore, respectively.
At the Bahrain GP in Malaysia, the seven-time F1 World Champion’s return to Malaysia turned out to be a tricky affair as a decision to start the wet-dry race on slick tyres cost him much ground at lights out.
The race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, a week ago, was another strategic nightmare for the Briton, who, pushed onto a two-stop strategy, decided to overrule the team and completed a 40+ laps stint on the Soft tyres to take a disappointing P6 at the chequered flag from the second row of the grid.
Former Aston Martin strategist and F1 pundit, Collins believes that Hamilton may have lost faith in the Ferrari pit wall this season.
“Fred [Vasseur] obviously came out afterwards and said, yes, they did call him. Lewis missed the entry or ignored the call, whichever way you want to think about it,” she said on the Sky Sports F1 podcast.
“But someone of Lewis’s stature doesn’t forget to do a pit stop. So let’s say it’s a decision not to take the pit entry, or the call didn’t come in time, or whatever.
“But that was crucial, I think, to the race at that point. Now, if we go back a week to Malaysia, we had the same sort of lack of trust, for want of another word.
“They started on a dry tyre, then the call came to switch to an intermediate tyre. Lewis said, ‘That’s the wrong thing; we need to stick this out now.’
“He had a discussion with the pit wall, an argumentative discussion, stayed on the tyre that he was on, and ultimately that ended up very similar to Leclerc towards the end of the race.
“However, I do think that shows more globally that Lewis isn’t trusting that Ferrari team.”
Lewis Hamilton advised to have a “very difficult” conversation with Ferrari
Hamilton did have the option to pit under the VSC at the Singapore GP. Instead, he chose to go a different way than his team had planned for him.
This meant, during the latter phase of the Grand Prix, Hamilton could not resist the likes of Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Kimi Antonelli on much fresher rubber.
Collins, therefore, has urged Hamilton to have a sit-down with Ferrari, albeit a “very difficult” one, to avoid future instances of missing out on points out of a difference of opinion.
“He’s questioning their decisions, and in this sort of quick decision-making moment under a VSC, there’s not the time to have all the back and forth about what he thinks or why he thinks it or doesn’t think it,” Collins added.
“But it’s very difficult from a pit wall and Lewis’s side to then think, ‘Okay, last week I questioned them; I think I was correct.
“This week I’m going to question them; maybe I’m correct or incorrect.’ And then there was an opportunity later on, I think even after they missed the VSC, to do a full pit stop and still be able to beat Piastri, and they didn’t take that either.
“There was the decision then to string it out and hope for another safety car. So I think there were lots of decisions that should have been done differently, and I think they should be having a very difficult conversation between Lewis and his engineers, or the strategy team, or Fred, whoever needs to be involved.
“Say, ‘Where is the trust when we make these decisions? What is the protocol for how that decision is taken, and why?'”
Hamilton will be hoping for a better turnaround for him and Ferrari at the Circuit of the Americas for the US GP next week.
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