Martin Whitmarsh has defended the McLaren team's tactical call to pit Lewis Hamilton for a second time during Sunday's Australian GP, despite the 2008 champion suggesting that it ended up costing the team a 1-2 finish in the race.
Hamilton ended up finishing 6th in the second race of the season, but claimed that he could have taken at least second place if the team hadn't made the call to pit him again.
He was running behind Robert Kubica in third place when the team called him in for a second stop on lap 35, seemingly as a reaction to Red Bull pitting Mark Webber for a second time just behind him. But although Hamilton was able to close back up on the cars ahead of him, he failed to make a move on Fernando Alonso's Ferrari and dropped a place to 6th after Webber collided with him.
But despite the spectacular failure of the strategy gamble, Whitmarsh insisted that the team had made the correct decision given the situation when Hamilton was behind the Renault of Kubica.
"Lewis was losing time behind Kubica," Whitmarsh explained calmly, "You could see he had graining of his rear left tyre and you could see that Michael [Schumacher] had stopped and was going purple, Webber had stopped and was going purple and more than one second per lap quicker.
"With the information we had at the time, given where Lewis was, we felt that it was the right call."
He did, though, concede that the team had lost a probable 1-2 finish when the gamble failed, saying that: "I think in retrospect and hindsight, if we look at how the race played out - if Lewis could have made those tyres last then he could have finished at least second today and we would have a 1-2.
"Inimitably in McLaren style, you look at a win and say - 'damn, it could have been a one-two'. It was disappointing because it was a fantastic drive by Lewis. We as a team made that decision, I have to be accountable for that and I am disappointed with the outcome, but I am not disappointed by the process because I thought it was the right decision at the time."
When asked about the slightly prickly point of Hamilton's outburst on the pit radio during the race, where the Brit had opined that the call to bring him in had been a "fricking terrible idea", Whitmarsh downplayed the significance of Hamilton's words.
"Lewis passionately expressed himself on the radio," Whitmarsh shrugged, "I think that is how Lewis is - he is passionate, he likes to win. He likes to do everything well, he is hard on himself and he is hard on the team - that is how Lewis Hamilton is. That is how he ticks and that is how he functions."
Meanwhile Hamilton spent Monday in Melbourne whining on about how he'd have won everything for being amazing had he not been stopped twice in the race.
"My tyres were fine," he pouted, "I started off on a good set, got a good start, was up to a pretty good position, up to third, happy with everything and I was pulled in - I don't know why I was pulled in.
"That is what lost us at least a one-two today. I think the tyres would have been pretty good. I may have struggled towards the end, but that is how the other guys did - and it was almost impossible to overtake a Ferrari anyway."
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
