Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, Albert Park, 2019

Hamilton: ‘I allowed the gap to Bottas to be the size it was’

2019 Australian Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by and

Lewis Hamilton said he was managing the gap to team mate Valtteri Bottas, after rival Sebastian Vettel claimed the Mercedes driver dropped back out of boredom.

Hamilton lost the lead of the race from pole position at the start when Bottas got away from the grid better than him. After that Hamilton said his priority was to take care of his tyres.

“Valtteri had a lot more pace in the car,” Hamilton explained. “But here you need a 1.8 second delta to overtake the car ahead. So as soon as we got through turn one it was really about managing.

“I was planning to just stay close behind, two, three seconds. Then obviously I had the issue with the car and the gap started to slowly increase. So it would have continued to increase.

“But then after that I was trying to look after the tyres and then I got [pit] stopped super-early in reaction to the Ferraris. I knew from then on the race was done because I had 47 laps [to go], so I knew immediately I was going to be in trouble on the long run so I drive well off the pace. Well, well off the pace to make sure at the end of the race I still had life left in the tyres.

“I knew on those following laps Max [Verstappen] and Valtteri were still out and they kept going for laps and laps so I knew at the end I would have someone on my back. But rather than push and keep close, struggle with the tyres and at the end have big degradation, which Vettel had which was understandable because his tyres were so old, I was quite happy with the pace I was able to pull out at the end.”

Hamilton described his defeat in the first round of the season as a “light patch of adversity.”

“I’m generally happy with how I drove today,” he said. “I did what I needed to do, no more, no less.

“I don’t focus on the gap because I allowed the gap to be the size that it was. So that’s no real issue for me. And obviously the strategy was not ideal in the scenario that I had.

“But with what I was given I think I did a relatively decent job it’s just obviously the start I lost out quite a lot.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2019 F1 season

Browse all 2019 F1 season articles

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

53 comments on “Hamilton: ‘I allowed the gap to Bottas to be the size it was’”

  1. Come on Lewis… Just give credit where credit is due. You got pants & spanked today. Simply as that.

    1. His words don’t contradict his praise to Valtteri after the race.
      If you wanted his to say that he was so slow and distracted by birds for example – sorry, it was not the case, so he couldn’t say this.

      1. @dallein well there is an Argument there that it could be regarded as a Part of ‘Good sportmanship’ not to make statements, True or not, that diminuish your opponent’s Achievement, so i do get coanda’ s sentiment

        1. Charles S dee
          17th March 2019, 19:35

          Sorry but I don’t agree with you. Do you really think Valteri was that much faster than the 5 time, 73 race winning Lewis Hamilton? You’re a fool if you do. Bottas drove a great race and I think Hamilton would agree. Lewis was playing it smart. Saving his tires for a battle in the end or should I say to ward it off, which is exactly what he did. People wanted an answer and he gave it. For Vettel to say what he did was borderline asinine.

    2. This ‘sport’ is a lot more complex than the simple answers you expect.

      Not only was Lewis slow/d off the line, his tire change was also slower than Vettel’s.
      Given how early he came in, the sensible thing was to look after his tires and bring the car home.
      That’s a champion speaking. There are also reports of floor damage, which i’ve not yet seen substantiated, but that may have been an unknown factor.

      Hamiltion may even have been thinking about the engine and the long term goal of looking after that.
      The flip side of drivers gunning for the extra point will be more engines being unduely stressed.

      I still say Bottas was ‘owed’ a couple of wins and however that was contrived, this would have been understood by Hamilton. Remember Mercedes has the longer term objective of keeping their drivers motivated and working in harmony to maximize their efforts come the end of the season. Mercedes would have wanted an end to those stories surround Bottas at the end of last season.

      This is part of a more complex answer centered on man management. Compare this to Vettel’s simple assesment , eg Lewis was bored.

      1. Or he just wasn’t as quick as Bottas

        1. Who got the pole? You must be regarded to think he isn’t the quickest.
          You have hate and feeding your unnecessary ego. Stay tuned.

    3. He already congratulated Valtteri Bottas on his social media also his interview Great drive from Valtteri, well deserved.

    4. Lewis’ comments in no way detract from the praise he gave Valterri. He never claimed he could have challenged for the lead, in fact, what he said is clear, if he had tried to keep a smaller gap, he would have used up his tires and been more at risk at the end. I think that is another complement to Valterri.

    5. I guess you missed the part where he said that Bottas had better pace. . I wander if you read the article or just the headline.

      1. I doubt they read either, since it might impair their ability to gratuitously insult Hamilton.

  2. I am glad he doesn’t come up with some BS and just says it as it is.
    At some point it became clear that the performance is not there to really challenge Valtteri, and as it was definitely impossible to overtake him on track – it was absolutely the right decision not to push too much.
    Besides – it was really nice to see how he managed the gap to Verstappen. Fascinating stuff – he waited, waited, waited, and then just literally drove away at the moments he needed it.

    I fully admit Valtteri had an outstanding race, but Lewis also did his job perfectly (well, of course except the start) – as he said – “no more, no less”.
    It was the first race of the longest ever (by the duration) season, and Championships are not won or lost at the first race.

    1. I am glad he doesn’t come up with some BS and just says it as it is.

      this was bs!
      He had a lousy start (again, one of his weaknesses) and damaged the floor by a curb mistake. So he did it all by himself.. Valtteri was the stronger driver today. No excuses by lewis

      1. Which curb did he hit? The last I heard, Mercedes didn’t know… so maybe you should call them up and tell them.

        Funny how people who’ve never even sat in an F1 car know so much more than factory teams and drivers.

      2. I heard he hit a bit of debris left from Ricciardos mistake. If that is correct you can’t blame Hamilton for that.

  3. Right LH. And Ferrari are up to half a second faster too.

    1. F1oSaurus (@)
      17th March 2019, 13:25

      @robbie They were during winter testing. This is a different track.

      You don’t really understand a whole lot of F1 do you?

      Different tracks often happen to change relative car performances.

      Do you even watch F1, because the exact same thing happened last year as well?

      1. But I thought Mercedes topped the timesheets in winter testing? I could be wrong on that though.

        1. Only on the last day– and Vettel was still faster (VET, HAM, LEC, BOT). Renault had 5th fastest time on the sheets, and look how that turned out for them today.

          Meanwhile, every single pundit who watched testing said the Ferrari looked smoother and more balanced.

  4. Lewis must switch off the Hollywood/holiday mode now. Seems like he still not fully focused.
    Focus is very important in Professional sport even the dominating favorites get beat if they are not fully focused. One such example is UFC Welterweight champion Woodley getting soundly beat recently even though he was the overwhelming favorite and dominant champion.

    1. He’s focused. He just got beat. That doesn’t mean his mind is wondering. He is allowed to just get beat.

      1. wandering* of course. Damn brain.

        1. Wondering fitted better.

    2. GtisBetter (@)
      17th March 2019, 13:48

      Really? This again? Only after one race? Hamilton has already proved multiple times his lifestyle doesn’t get in the way of winning, so please stop with this nonsense. Bottas drove faster then got the best strategy as he was in front. Simple as that.

      1. Yep, agree with you on that. I’m no Hamilton fan, and certainly not of the celebrity lifestyle, but he’s been living this lifestyle for a few years now and he’s still been bringing home the championships.

    3. @amg44 If only Lewis had you as a coach 10 years ago, he’d probably have 10 WDCs by now. Instead we have to make do with a paltry 5 WDC’s – tsk tsk, so easily distracted isn’t he…

    4. Yes, definitively in a world of his own. Daydreaming I expect. Weird though that he kept a perfect gap to the 3rd placed driver from Lap 1 to 58. Almost like he was controlling his pace once he realised the win was out of the question.

    5. I would say the opposite, he should do more Hollywood because it works. He got beaten yesterday plain and simple.

  5. Managed his tyres so well that Bottas still set the fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap just after Hamilton announced on the radio that he needed that FLAP point…woteva ‘champ’.

    1. Let’s wait and see what state Bottas’ engine is in come mid season.

      1. But that’s precisely not the attitude Bottas needs. To win in Formula 1 you primarily need to make a statement to your rivals, go for the win full-out and make your own chances. There’s a reason Verstappen is still at Red Bull and Ricciardo down the grid at Renault – ultimately the teams know that the more risk-taking drivers tend to win. Applies to Hamilton and Vettel too. If Bottas conserves the engine and then it blows anyway? He needs to continue just the same. Getting close to Hamilton in qualifying and sometimes beating him (not easy as Hamilton is probably the best qualifier F1 ever had) and driving in this style during the race for the next few races, whatever the later cost.

    2. 10 laps older tyres.
      He managed them so well that verstappen could pass him on much newer tyres. But passed Vettel easily with tyres just one lap older than Hamilton’s.

    3. Exactly. However once that’s pointed out to him, he’ll manufacturer an excuse for that too.

  6. Just let it hit the fan. Maybe I won’t miss Rosberg this season

  7. What? Ok the whole idea of dropping back because of the delta needed to overtake makes sense, but even after pitting and being in clean air Hamilton literally never looked like he had the same pace as Bottas, and if he did he didn’t try at all. He even tried for FL, with clean air – and failed.

    ‘I allowed the gap to be the size it was’ – so you let yourself get totally spanked for what? Saving the engine? Sorry but sounds like sour grapes to me. He got beat fair and square.

    1. That isn’t being sour grapes that’s managing tyres

    2. I more curious about this floor damage. How did it happen & when?

      1. I’m curious about this too, or any other car problem. Nothing was mentioned on channel 4 coverage, I’ve only seen the floor damage mentioned here.

        If the car was healthy there is absolutely no way Hamilton would give up on the win after the first corner, he would be chasing and trying to pressure Bottas into a mistake, or stay close enough to jump him at the pitstops, even though Bottas would be putting first. It’s not in his dna to give up so easily. So either the car was damaged, in which case there is an explanation for Bottas pulling away, or he only chose to give up after he was forced to pit early to cover Vettel, which does make sense because the win would’ve been out of reach so it was damage limitation.

        1. Hamilton was checking the problem area under the car in parc ferme; and damaged confirmd by Mercedes. Theirs pix all over twitter. As for up to date info from C4; that’ll be problematic. They cannot interview in pit lane, and severe restrictions on interviews in the paddock. Basically they have been shut out by Sky.

      2. They’re not sure. The team definitely confirmed it on twitter, and I could believe floor damage could cost 3/10ths of a second a lap (or more).

  8. So Lewis let Max get that close and pressure him when he could have been up the road 20 more secs? Either he can’t admit he got blown away today or not very smart to let max be that close. 1 mistake would have lost 2nd place if that’s the case. I don’t think drivers should ever let time go if they can take it

    1. Lewis’ tires were much older than Max’s. I wish you guys would think before you comment. He let him get that close for obvious reasons; to preserve the life of his tires, and to control the pace. Lewis could have never competed with Max on pace, early on.

  9. Duncan Snowden
    17th March 2019, 18:27

    Let the mind games begin…

  10. Don’t think he’s trying to take anything away from Bottas… one of the first things he said was how well Bottas had driven.

    But it was obvious he was cruising in the latter stages by the way he dropped Verstappen in S3 every time he got a sniff of being in DRS range on the main straight.

    1. The problem was he was cruising from the start.

  11. Biggest BS

  12. if one thing, this shows how hamilton matured and learned when to give up and accept the situations and do the best out of them.
    it was a one stopper since always, so, a 2nd pit was completely out of the question.
    he knew he had a long way to go so immediately dropped off with new tyres, to keep them alive and to avoid catching leclerc, who might’ve get into his way and destroyed his tyres.

    given the little space he had after the not so good start, his race was very good.
    compare that to vettel who set the fastest lap right after changing tyres and was left drifting in the track for the last 20 laps.

    1. +1 Agree, Hamilton’s description is a master class in race management, he quickly realized Bottas had better pace, realized he’d stopped early and the likes of Verstappen would catch him later in the race, and adapted accordingly, assuring second place. Like he said, he did what he had to do. Still doesn’t hide the fact Bottas was blisteringly quick, including off the line.

    2. I agree too. Just like Fangio used to try to win at the slowest possible speed, HAM drove to finish 2nd in that way. He knew that on this track you need a large speed delta to overtake and the guy at the front was in the same car driving extremely well. By the time BOT overtook him at the first corner he knew where he stood. When VES caught up with him, he then had the speed and the preserved tyres to keep him at bay, just over 1 second. So many races are won by a small margin – I believe it is 100% intentional: the best drivers try to win at the slowest possible speed. @david-br, I agree with you – it was a masterclass of race management: HAM did the optimal race considering the situation he was in after losing the lead and covering VET.
      Now looking at BOT, what he did was understandable (trying to win by a margin as large as he could) because he was excited to be in a dominant and winning position at long last. However, he will have pushed his engine the whole race which I hope will not come back to haunt him with reliability on this PU. This is a 21 race season with 3 PUs and pushing your engine as much as you can when you don’t need to doesn’t seem a wise thing to do.

  13. Looked like he did manage his race, knowing there was no-way he was going to beat Bottas. I reckon Lewis just has eyes for Vettel being the main contender this year so he wasn’t panicking much

  14. Could this be VBs “Rosberg” year?

  15. “I lost because I wanted to”. What a classy fella…

  16. I don’t believe he ‘allowed’ the gap to grow to such an extent. I think Bottas had a great weekend, Hamilton not so much. But his ego won’t let him admit that.

Comments are closed.