Lewis Hamilton Could Tell McLaren Were On A Two-Stop Strategy

McLaren F1 team failed to convert their front-row lockout at the Italian Grand Prix after Charles LeClerc managed to take the win off their hands after taking one pitstop less. The problems for McLaren began when Oscar Piastri overtook his teammate Lando Norris on lap 1 of the race. Due to Piastri overtaking Lando, Leclerc was able to take advantage of this and overtook Norris separating the two McLarens. The McLarens then went on to pitstop twice in their race whereas Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc pulled a long stint with one pitstop. Leclerc drove 38 laps on his hard tires and was able to pick up the win at Monza.  

Lewis Hamilton Could Tell McLaren's Strategy  

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton reveals that he could tell McLaren's strategy of pitting twice as he saw the papaya colored cars push too hard. 

“I think McLaren had the pace [to win], they just pushed too hard.

“They were doing much too fast laps early on, and killed their tyres. I guess they literally had planned for a two stop, that’s why they were pushing so hard. 

“If they just backed off and gone longer they could, for sure, have made a one stop. 

“But I could tell. I was getting the information of the [lap] times they were doing, and there’s no way your tyres are gonna last at that pace," said Hamilton while speaking to SkySports F1. 

Hamilton Reveals Mercedes Shortcomings

Lewis Hamilton revealed that Mercedes were forced to go for a two-stop strategy in the race due to the high degradation of their car. When asked what Mercedes lacked in their race at Monza, Lewis Hamilton said, “Just race pace, we had more degradation and just generally lacking one or two-tenths in the race.

“It’s like you’re either not graining the left front or you’re graining the left rear. We just didn’t have the pace. We had to go and look and try to understand why.

“Also because we looked better on Friday than we did. We got almost slower through the weekend or others got faster or we were too light and they were heavy.” 

Lewis Hamilton finished 5th in Monza.