Lewis Hamilton said it “made no sense” to give teammate George Russell DRS in the final circuits of the Japanese Grand Prix to defend against Carlos Sainz.
Russell was in fifth place late in the Suzuka race, but Hamilton and Sainz were closing in on him.
Russell was on significantly older tyres because he chose to change his tyres only once, whereas his competitors behind him were using two-stop strategy.
Russell advised to Mercedes that it utilize DRS to retain Sainz behind the wheel, a strategy that the Spaniard used to win in Singapore last week.
Mercedes, on the other hand, switched vehicles before asking Hamilton to give Russell DRS – but Sainz’s advantage was enough to see him pass the latter.
The Spaniard then chased Hamilton but was unable to pass the seven-time World Champion for fifth place, while Russell finished seventh on the one-stop.
After the race, Hamilton questioned Mercedes’ strategic usage of DRS in an interview with RacingNews365.
“I don’t think it was a good idea,” he said. “When they suggested it to me, I knew they were thinking back to the previous race, and it made no sense.”
“I needed to get as far ahead as I could.” And I was on my way, about two seconds ahead of schedule, when they requested me to give George DRS.
“As a result, I had to ease off the gas down the straight to keep him 0.8 second behind.”
“Then he got the DRS, but he was overtaken, which was inevitable because he was on a one-stop.”
“He [Sainz] got past him [Russell], and then he was right on my tail, which wasn’t ideal.” It made the last couple laps quite difficult.
“I think we should be thankful for fifth and seventh place as a team.” It’s a step up from sixth and seventh.”
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