Christian Horner did not understand Mercedes' tactic of putting hard tires on Lewis Hamilton's car on lap 33, as he believes that with soft tires the Briton could threaten the Maranello duo more strongly
Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes that Ferrari "got away" from a defeat at the British GP because of the strategy adopted by Mercedes on Sunday (3). In the manager's view, the option of putting hard tires on Lewis Hamilton's car opened the way for Carlos Sainz Jr. to win at Silverstone.
In the English race, the seven-time champion was much more competitive than in the rest of the 2022 season, and even led the race after prolonging the first stint on medium tires. Conserving his tires well, Lewis reached lap 33 on the same set of tires he started with, unlike Sainz, who had to stop on lap 20, and Charles Leclerc, who pit-stopped at lap 25.
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When it was the Briton's turn to stop, however, Mercedes opted to use the hard shoes instead of the soft ones. In Horner's opinion, this choice was decisive in taking away Hamilton's chance to fight for the victory with Ferrari.
"I was actually surprised that Lewis, with the laps he had ahead of him and the wear he showed, didn't put on a soft," Horner said. "He put a hard tire on lap 33 and, in fact, I thought he would go for the soft, because it would have been much easier for him to compensate for grip," he followed.
"It looked like they [Ferrari] might have got away with it there," he commented.
The Energy team boss also questioned the decisions of Ferrari itself, which did not move Sainz out of Leclerc's way early in the race, nor did it stop the Monegasque at the time of the safety car caused by Esteban Ocon, who was stopped on the old Silverstone straight.
"Everyone is different, isn't he? Every team is different," he pointed out. "I think the decision I understood least was the decision not to stop both cars or, certainly, or Charles, for the soft tires," he stated.
"[Hamilton] obviously had a free stop. And when you're the free car, it's the hardest thing in the world to stop in the lead," he acknowledged. "But I think even if Lewis had stayed on the pita, with the advantage of the soft tire, they [Ferrari] would have passed him," he pondered.
With the strategy, Leclerc dropped from leader to third on the restart, just three positions ahead of Max Verstappen, who had a tumultuous Sunday after damaging his car with a part that came loose from an AlphaTauri.
"On a day when we had two cars that were not in great shape at different points in the race, Sergio [Perez] extended his lead over Charles, consolidating second place, and Max only gave up six points to Charles," he pointed out. "I think in the Constructors' World Cup, we only lost 13 points. It could have been much worse," he closed.
The 2022 Formula One season returns next week in Spielberg for the Austrian GP on July 8-10.