‘A painful lesson’ – Hamilton apologizes as he takes responsibility for Singapore strategic gamble

Lewis Hamilton said he took “full responsibility” for a strategic gamble that backfired at the Singapore Grand Prix, with the seven-time world champion calling the decision a “painful lesson”.

After starting the race from P3 on the medium tires, Hamilton was the first driver to make a pit stop when he switched to the soft tires. The opportunity for a second stop presented itself when a virtual safety car was deployed, with Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc among those in the pits.

While Hamilton was also called out, the Briton initially missed pit entry, but ultimately decided to stay on track to try to make a one-stop strategy work until the end of the race.

As the event progressed, Hamilton continued to struggle with his aging tires and dropped to sixth place. He later expressed regret over the way things went when the checkered flag fell, commenting on the radio: “Sorry boys. I let you down today with that strategy. My call and I lost us some valuable points. I’ll try to make up for it in the next one.”

Ferrari confirmed that, having felt unwell after the race, Hamilton was seen by the FIA ​​medical team and given permission not to attend the media box. However, a statement from the world champion was subsequently released, in which he reflected on a difficult evening in Singapore.

“Today was not the result we were looking for and that was down to me,” Hamilton said. “On a track that is difficult to overtake you have to try something different and I chose to start with new medium tires, go long and try to make a single stop work. Unfortunately the mediums did not perform as well as the softs.”

“I had a good second stint and the pace was back, but I couldn’t make the necessary progress. Under the VSC, the team called me but I missed the entry.”

“After that I decided to stay on track and try to maintain my track position until the end, but in the last laps I had a lot of problems with tire degradation and lost three places, finishing P6, which doesn’t reflect the pace we had in the car today.

“It’s a painful lesson today, but I take full responsibility for the decisions I made. Not every decision will work, and I can accept being wrong, but I feel sorry for the team for the points we lost today. They invested so much in each weekend and I wanted to give them more.

“I will continue to work and come back to fight in the next race.”