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According to Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes' request that he assist George Russell by keeping him in DRS range during the F1 Japanese Grand Prix just did not make sense. When told what he was supposed to do, the Briton was not satisfied.
In spite of the fact that he considered it a wrong decision, he was forced to do it. "I don't think that was a good idea at all," Hamilton said, as quoted by crash.net! "When they suggested it to me, I knew that they had obviously thought of it from the last race, and it made no sense.
I needed to get as far clear ahead as possible and I was on my way. I was around two seconds ahead and they asked me then to give George DRS, so I had to come off the gas down the straight to get him 0.8s behind." In spite of all the things that happened, Hamilton thinks that things could have been much worse for them.
"He got DRS, but got overtaken, which was going to happen because he was on a one-stop and we were on a two. Then he [Sainz] got past him and he was right on my tail, so yeah, not ideal. It made it very hard for the last couple of laps, but I think as a team we've got to be grateful for a fifth and seventh.
It's better than a sixth and seventh”.
Lewis Hamilton
At Mercedes, they are obviously doing things that Hamilton does not favor. Hamilton has his own opinion, which he believes was right in those moments. The Brit still supports that they have to work as a team in order to achieve good results.
"We should have swapped around earlier and I should have got as far ahead as possible to keep the gap as big as I could to the Ferrari. I think if we had inverted, maybe George would have had a better time holding him behind maybe, but because he was trying to fight me and damaging his tyres then I think it just made it all complicated.
The fact is we're not fighting each other in the teams' championship, as the drivers' is not important where we are. What's important is one of us finishes ahead of the Ferrari to keep the position [in the constructors' championship]. So today we really needed to work as a team."