Christian Horner thought that Lewis Hamilton was going to attempt a last stint on soft tires to try to get the Ferrari drivers. The Mercedes F1 driver stopped 19 laps from the finish, and the director of Red Bull judges that it was possible for him to hold on with the soft tires to drive faster than Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
“I was actually surprised that Lewis, with the number of laps to go and the degradation he had, didn’t put on the softs” explained Horner. “He put the hard tires on on lap 33 and I thought he was going to take the soft ones.”
“Because it would have been much easier for him to compensate for the possible lost grip. I felt like that’s when they let Ferrari go.”
Horner is also surprised that Ferrari did not bring Leclerc in at the end of the race when the safety car came out on track. According to the Briton, the pace of the Monegasque driver was enough for him to regain the lead, even if Hamilton took the opportunity to stay on track.
“Everyone is different, right? Every team is different. I guess the decision I understood the least was not to stop two cars, and therefore especially Charles, to put the soft tires on safety car moment.”
“Hamilton obviously had a free stop. And when you’re the lead car, it’s the hardest thing in the world to stop from the lead. But I think even if Lewis had stayed on track, with the advantage of the soft tyres, Ferrari would have passed it.”