Hamilton labels Mercedes as F1's ‘best strategists’ after criticism 

Lewis Hamilton has jumped to the defence of his Mercedes team, hailing them as the “best strategists” in Formula 1, following criticism in the aftermath of the Austrian Grand Prix.

A strategic error under a Virtual Safety Car period cost Hamilton the lead of the race, after Mercedes opted to keep the Briton out on-track, while all the remaining frontrunners took the opportunity to dive into the pitlane. 

Hamilton - who was ultimately forced into retirement with a fuel pressure problem - emerged in fourth place after his subsequent stop, prompting chief strategist James Vowles to apologise to his driver over team radio for making a mistake. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff insisted no changes were needed following the race.

When asked about the situation in the drivers’ press conference ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix, Hamilton said: “I think if you look at the season, it’s been like that for other teams. Ferrari have lost points, I’m pretty sure the Red Bulls have lost points. There’s a lot of tough calls for each team to make, that’s just how it is.

“I hope it’s not a title decider. But I can’t predict what’s going to happen going forward. All I can say is that I really do feel like I have the best strategist team behind me. Look how many wins I’ve had with this team. Nobody’s perfect. That’s just the way this sport is, there’s no way to be perfect. 

“We know it was a difficult weekend and of course we would all have hoped it wasn’t the way it was,” he added. “What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. The spirit in the team is stronger than it’s ever been. The experiences we’ve been having and how we’ve been handling them have really united us more than any other year.”

Austria marked just the second time in the V6 hybrid era that both Mercedes cars have failed to finish a race, but Hamilton said he will not allow any concerns about reliability to linger.

“We’re human, so naturally, every single individual in the team will have that little bit at the back of their mind, that as a driver, as an athlete, I can’t allow that to interfere with my weekend,” he insisted. 

“You go in with the same mentality of the last weekend, hoping for the car to be reliable. You can never predict what’s going to happen, but that’s not getting in my way, and I’m pretty sure for the majority of people in this team, that’s not getting in their way either.”

Hamilton revealed his team has already implemented a number of immediate fixes in a bid to address the issues it faced in Spielberg. 

“I think coming here, there’s been some fixes already immediately after the race, as soon as they got the car back, that evening there was a fix that was designed and put into test mode. The team was super on it. I’m confident that we’ve done everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”