Formula 1 pundit and former W Series driver Naomi Schiff speculated that Lewis Hamilton’s botched tyre strategy in the Singapore Grand Prix was spawned from a distrust of how Ferrari may have dealt with the situation.
The Briton finished sixth at the Marina Bay Circuit, dropping three places from his grid position, having taken autonomy of his own strategy.
Hamilton made the crucial decision to stay out during a Virtual Safety Car, whereas many others pitted, including teammate Charles Leclerc.
This effectively left the seven-time World Champion a sitting duck, and in the closing stages of the race, came under attack from Lando Norris and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who both overtook him.
Hamilton took full ownership of the decision, apologising to the team on the cool-down lap, with Fred Vasseur corroborating this in post-race media duties.
Speaking on Sky Sports F1 after the race, Schiff theorised that Hamilton was taking charge of the strategy due to a lack of faith in the Scuderia’s decision-making.
“I’m not that surprised,” she said. “I think they’ve sort of lost trust with each other on making the right decisions in certain circumstances.
“Do you blame Lewis today? Yes maybe he made the wrong call, but do you blame the team last week? Yes, they made the wrong call then.
“So I understand why Lewis is challenging them because he’s not always confident that they are going to make the right decision.
“Maybe he just desperately wanted to get ahead of his teammate and get that track position element, which, on a track like this, can sometimes make the difference.”
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Hamilton’s former teammate, Jenson Button, did not share Schiff’s view, seeing it more as a bold gamble that backfired.
“I don’t know, I disagree,” she 2009 World Champion said. “I just think he wanted to make his call on the race and he thought it was the right one.
“He didn’t want to be sat behind his team-mate for the rest of the race, basically. He wanted to give it a go and he knew his pace was there when he was on the Soft tyre.
“I really respect him for apologising at the end of the race, straight after the race. It’s the best way to do it to move on.”
Schiff countered that Hamilton “went in quite early on his Mediums, had a fresher set of Softs and Leclerc came out in front of him and Lewis didn’t get to maximise that part of his stint, because Charles was slowing him down there.
“So I do think that there is a little bit of having to take control in some cases from Lewis’ side, because he doesn’t think he’s going to get the best out of them.”
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