Lewis Hamilton has again voiced his unhappiness at the current Pirelli tyres after a nervy end to the Belgian Grand Prix.
The six-time world champion took another big step towards two Michael Schumacher records on Sunday with his 89th career win, just two behind the German, and now also holds a huge 47-point lead in the standings as he closes in on Formula 1 title No. 7.
Hamilton led from start-to-finish at Spa-Francorchamps, revealing post-race how he actually benefitted from a small error at the start to stay ahead on the run to Les Combes.
“That start is a nightmare because it’s one of the shortest runs to Turn 1,” he admitted post-race.
“Out of La Source, I had a big snap trying to get on the gas to get the gap, but it worked to my benefit to be honest because it meant Valtteri [Bottas] was right on my tail and had to lift [through Eau Rouge].
“When they got to the top of the hill he didn’t have enough time to slingshot. No shake and bake today! If I didn’t have that snap I would have had a cars’ length, but he would have eaten that up down the straight.”
From there it was all plain sailing for Hamilton, although pitting under the safety car meant tyre life was becoming a crucial issue in the final laps.
“It wasn’t the easiest of races,” Lewis claimed. “I was a little bit nervous that we might have a scenario like Silverstone with that right front towards the end, so I was nursing it.
“It looks like the tyre has plenty of rubber on it, so maybe it was fine and I was all worried for nothing.
“[But] I had a lockup into Turn 5 which started to give a bit of a vibration, then one into the last corner,” he continued.
“The tyre temperatures were slowly dropping. No matter how much you were pushing, you lose rubber and then you start to lose temperature in the tyres, so it was a bit of a struggle.”
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After the second race at Silverstone earlier this month, Hamilton criticised Pirelli for producing tyres that encourage a one-stop strategy but require more management to achieve it
And following the race at Spa, he repeated his frustration.
“Today it’s really tyres – everyone’s doing a one-stop. This whole one-stop thing really is boring,” he told Sky Sports. “At the end of the day, we’re all just managing out there, which is not racing.
“We’re all managing, at the end everyone’s backing off so that the tyres don’t deflate, blow up – we have no idea what they’re going to do.”