A change in race strategy by the McLaren-Mercedes team was a major contributory factor to Lewis Hamilton’s ignominious retirement from Sunday’s Canadian grand prix in Montreal, when he ran into the back of the world champion Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari as he accelerated down the pit lane following a routine refuelling stop.
Martin Whitmarsh, the McLaren chief executive officer, revealed yesterday that Hamilton took on slightly more fuel than his immediate rivals at the fateful pit stop, intending to run a long middle stint of the race before trying to vault back into the lead at the final round of refuelling stops.
He also claimed that Hamilton had been specifically told over the radio that he should watch out for a possible red warning light coming on at the end of the pit lane. At that moment in the race the safety car had been deployed to slow the pace of the field while an abandoned car was moved.
Whitmarsh stopped short of blaming Hamilton for the incident, admitting that it might have been possible to remind him about the warning lights a few seconds earlier. “Frankly, we gave it to him [but] we could have given it to him earlier,” he said. “There was quite a lot going on, obviously, as we were fuelling Lewis’s car and that of his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen. When you come in first and come out third I’m sure you’re anxious to see if you can jump past those people, and I’m sure that distracted him [Hamilton]. As Nico [Rosberg] proved seconds later, it was easy to do.”
Martin Whitmarsh said: “We regard the stewards’ decision as hard but fair. Hard in the sense that it clearly makes Lewis’s task more difficult in Magny-Cours, but fair on the grounds that we have no argument with their (the stewards’) contention that he did cause an avoidable accident.
“Sometimes severe consequences can be the results of split-second misjudgements. And in this instance we’ll take the loss of a likely win and the 10 place grid penalty squarely on the chin.”
The incident happened at the exit from the pit lane after the first round of stops and took both drivers out of the race. Raikkonen, whose car was stationary at a red light signal, said: “My race was ruined by Hamilton’s mistake.
“Obviously, anyone can make mistakes - as I did two weeks ago in Monaco [when Raikkonen shunted Force India’s Adrian Sutil out of the race].
“It’s one thing to make a mistake at 200 miles per hour but another to hit a car stopped at a red light.”
“I am not angry - because that doesn’t achieve anything and does not change my result! I am unhappy, because I had a great chance of winning.”
Whitmarsh agreed that Ferrari and Raikkonen were the “innocent victims”.
Speaking after his 10-place penalty, Hamilton said: “Obviously I am not happy but they can throw what they want at me, I will come back stronger.
“I saw the red light but it was too late. It’s not a racing incident but it is unfortunate.”
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