Lewis Hamilton scored a season-best P4 at the Canadian Grand Prix last weekend. But the Mercedes star still called it ‘one of the worst races’ he’s ever driven.
Hamilton went off track during his wet-weather battle with Fernando Alonso in the first half of the race, and he also lost multiple seconds when chasing Oscar Piastri. He was one of the first to bolt on the slicks, but that mistake cost him the advantage associated with warmer tyres.
Still, it briefly looked as if Hamilton was on for his first podium since the 2023 Mexican Grand Prix. He capitalised when teammate George Russell botched an overtake on Piastri – a move Toto Wolff said was ‘never on’ – and he then managed to get by the McLaren cleanly.
However, Russell re-passed him before the chequered flag to ensure he bagged Mercedes’ top-three finish of the campaign. The 26-year-old had started on pole position before losing ground thanks to some errors of his own.
Hamilton, meanwhile, was left fighting to recover after qualifying down in seventh. Much like Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle, he was initially at a loss to explain the deficit to Russell.
But after the race, he revealed that tyre blanket issues may have been to blame for his struggles. He’s called for Mercedes to investigate ahead of the next race in Spain.
Peter Windsor stunned by Lewis Hamilton tyre exchange at Canadian Grand Prix
Speaking on his YouTube channel, F1 expert Peter Windsor reflected on a series of Hamilton’s radio messages with amazement. When the incident involving Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon led to the second safety car of the race, Mercedes called both of their cars in once again.
Their rivals stayed out, so while they had the benefit of track position, they also had to fend off the Silver Arrows duo on fresher rubber. Hamilton had been running on medium tyres, while Russell was on hards.
That flipped around after the pit stops, leaving the former on a slower but more durable compound. Mercedes felt this was his best option, with no more fresh sets of mediums available and concerns about the viability of the softs.
Windsor was baffled by the debate that took place between driver and team. He feels Hamilton should have had a clear picture of the tyre situation coming into the race.
“Lewis wanted to come in for tyres but didn’t have any mediums,” he said. “I couldn’t believe the conversation on the radio of Lewis saying ‘can’t I go to softs?’, and then they said ‘well, we don’t think the softs are going to last’. ‘Well why can’t I have mediums?’, ‘we haven’t got any left’.
“You’d think they would have sorted that out before the race. You’d think they would know how many sets of tyres they’ve got left.”
Mercedes apologise after overlooking Hamilton achievement
While Russell’s P3 was officially Mercedes’ first podium finish of the season, it wasn’t their first top-three result of the campaign. That came at the Chinese Grand Prix when Hamilton came home second behind Max Verstappen in the Sprint.
Mercedes initially failed to acknowledge this when they celebrated their ‘first trophy’ of the campaign on social media. But after complaints from Hamilton’s supporters, they accepted that they had made a mistake.
The atmosphere within the team will be under close external scrutiny in the coming months. The seven-time world champion is slowly approaching his move to Ferrari.
1996 world champion Damon Hill wonders when Toto Wolff will feel as if he has to shut Hamilton out of engineering meetings. After all, he won’t want him taking too many secrets about Mercedes’ 2025 car.
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