Mercedes says Lewis Hamilton would have actually been a duck sitting in the chase group at the restart of the safety car at Silverstone, had he not changed his soft tires at the time.
Hamilton had enough of a shock absorber in the third for pits and still came out ahead of Sergio Perez, who was one of the riders who also pitted for soft rubber to create what became an impressive climax for the British Grand Prix.
The retirement of Esteban Ocon made Hamilton and others prepare for a 10-lap sprint to the finish and the seven-time world champion was able to keep his place on the podium, passing Charles Leclerc unhappy with older hard tires. in a brilliant battle, having been overtaken by Perez.
Carlos Sainz was able to get ahead as the battle went from P2 to P6, with five cars from five different teams fighting for position in the final stages, in an exciting final that Ross Brawn christened the ” perfect demonstration “. of how the 2022 regulations were designed.
The first three on Sunday are still their teammates in the standings, but they took away much of their advantage 🔢
Sainz a Leclerc: + 13Perez a Verstappen: + 12Hamilton a Russell: + 16 # BritishGP 🇬🇧 # F1 pic.twitter.com/SOP6qCzgky
– PlanetF1 (@ Planet_F1) July 4, 2022
But Mercedes believes Hamilton would not have been able to fight as he did if he had been left with hard tires, even if he had given him a favorable position on the track.
A Mercedes engineer told Auto Motor und Sport: “We had much bigger problems warming up the tires compared to Ferrari. Lewis would not have had any chance with the hard tires after the restart against the others with soft tires.
“We were always clear that we would have used the safety car to switch to soft tires in all circumstances.”
Hamilton was at the pace of the firsts during the race, making several quick laps in a row as he sought to close out the two Ferrari drivers ahead.
The security car came out as he was pulling them, and when presented with the hypothetical scenario about what would have happened if the yellow flags had not been waved, Mercedes relied on a P2.
“Sainz would still have had it. With Leclerc it would have been difficult,” said the Mercedes engineer.
Hamilton’s podium, along with the withdrawal of George Russell, placed him 18 points behind his younger teammate, earning him a second consecutive podium in the process.