Frustrated Lewis Hamilton Suggests Red Bull Under-Inflated Tires for F1 win at Silverstone
Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton clearly isn't used to looking up at drivers from other teams on the Formula 1 victory podium.
A frustrated Hamilton even went so far as to insinuate on his radio during the 70th Anniversary F1 Grand Prix that race-winning Red Bull may have even under-inflated Max Verstappen's tires for Sunday's race at Silverstone.
While Verstappen raced to victory and the Mercedes cars driven by Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas struggled with excessive tire problems, world champion Hamilton said on the radio: "He must have less pressure in his tires or something."
Former Red Bull driver Robert Doornbos didn't like the sound of that.
"Hamilton is a really bad loser if he's going to assume that," Doornbos told Ziggo Sport.
After the tire problems, which included failures at the first Silverstone race, Pirelli reacted by increasing mandatory tire pressures for the second.
Hamilton called the tires "balloons," after Sunday's race but denied accusing Red Bull of cheating.
"When we start the race, we have minimal pressures and they increase during the race," Hamilton said. "With more laps, they go on a steep rise and I assume that we just went on a much steeper rise and increase in pressures.
"(Red Bull) must be able to keep their pressures lower than ours and that's why ours were blistering. That was just a theory that I had. I wasn't saying that they have different settings to us, because we all have the same minimum."
Given that Red Bull managed to win despite the fact that the Mercedes is clearly a quicker car, Red Bull consultant Dr. Helmut Marko said Sunday's win for Max Verstappen gave the energy drink-owned team hope. Verstappen's win moved him to second place in the standings, just 30 points behind Hamilton (a driver can earn a maximum of 26 points in a race).
"There is still a lot to come from us," Marko said. "The world championship is not over for us yet."
Even Toto Wolff, Mercedes' team principal, agrees with that.
"Red Bull is a title opponent for us," Wolff said. "It will be anything but a leisurely stroll. Without the retirement at the first race, Max would be much closer to Lewis now. Yes we have the fastest package, but it is not the fastest under all circumstances. That is why we have to learn how to tune our car so that the tires do not suffer like that."
As for whether Verstappen can repeat his winning feat this weekend in Barcelona, however, Hamilton is not so sure.
"I expect it to be similar to the first Silverstone race," Hamilton said. "The tires will be at the limit, but not quite as bad as in this race."
