Lewis Hamilton under fire: Managing Ferrari from behind the wheel – it doesn’t work

Virtual safety car period at the Singapore Grand Prix: Ferrari made the right strategic call and brought both drivers into the pits for fresh tyres. The Italians’ thinking was that, with new tyres, they might make life difficult for the leader, Max Verstappen, but would certainly secure second and third places.

But Lewis Hamilton went his own way during the Singapore night race. He ignored Ferrari’s instructions and stayed on the track. The result: with his tyres wearing out, the seven-time world champion became easy prey for Antonelli, Norris and Piastri, who all finished ahead of him; in the end, the Briton could only manage P6.

After the race, Hamilton admitted his mistake and apologised very graciously to the team.

Nevertheless, the Ferrari superstar has faced a great deal of criticism for his stubbornness, including from long-serving F1 driver and current Sky GP pundit Martin Brundle.

In his post-race analysis of the Grand Prix, 67-year-old Brundle said: “Hamilton started on a fresh set of medium tyres but struggled as the race progressed. He appeared to be following a clear two-stop strategy and pitted as early as lap 18 for soft tyres.”

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“Strangely, he didn’t pit again, despite the opportunity to make a relatively quick pit stop under the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) when Lance Stroll’s damaged Aston Martin had to be cleared from the track. Hamilton then suffered an inevitable puncture and ultimately lost fifth place to Oscar Piastri’s McLaren – even though the Australian had to make an unplanned stop due to a slow puncture.”

“After the race, it emerged that the switch to a one-stop strategy, which forced him to drive 44 laps on the same tyres, had been Hamilton’s own decision. He apologised to the team for this choice.”

“It is difficult to drive a modern Formula 1 car and manage the team’s strategy from behind the wheel, and the incident was revealing.”