Lewis Hamilton has taken a not-so-subtle swipe at his Mercedes team following the inaugural Miami Grand Prix on Sunday night.
Hamilton, a seven-time Formula One world champion, has merely a remote prospect of being in the title conversation come the latter stages of the season after enduring an unusually slow start.
The Mercedes car is some way off the pace in contrast to the Ferrari and the Red Bull, but even so, Hamilton is being outperformed by his novice teammate George Russell, a new low.
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Russell finished ahead of Hamilton at the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday night, in no small part due to the pair’s contrasting tire strategies. Hamilton, in hindsight, took the wrong option – but was it his fault?
In wake of the race, with Hamilton clearly frustrated to have finished sixth in front of an A-list Miami crowd, he took a swipe at his Mercedes team for their indecisiveness over his tire strategy.
Hamilton is quoted by the Daily Mail saying, “In that scenario, I have no clue where everyone is, so when the team say ‘it is your choice’, I don’t have the information to make the decision.”
“That’s what your job is. Make the decision for me as you have all the details and I don’t. I rely on the guys for that, but today they gave the decision to me and I didn’t understand it.”
Hamilton must already be counting the days until the season ends. All he can do is hope that Mercedes make progress in developing the car mid-season, with a view to challenging again next year.