Originally Posted by Devon Miles:
“But they were significantly quicker when they changed to slicks weren't they? I can't actually remember the details now but I thought that the guys who changed earlier to slicks were a lot quicker from the off than those on inters who stayed out a lap or 2 longer.
I saw it as more gambling that there was going to be very imminent rain - there wasn't so they ended up losing out.. they had to change to slicks anyway and the track temp & conditions weren't I imagine any better 2 laps later..”
Fair comment about the decision to change back from inter's to slicks.
It probablyy
was an "informed" decision though.
Thing is, basically, Hamilton was always setting lap-times about 3 laps after Alonso and Perez. Hamilton would be doing, say, 2:01s and Alonso would be doing 1:58s and then, 3 laps later, Hamilton would be doing 1:58s... but by then, of course, Alonso would have been doing 1:55s.
So, if Alonso was doing 1:48s on inter's when he came in for slicks then McLaren might assume
they have to wait 3 laps longer before Hamiltons car would be capable of generating the required heat in the slicks.
I suppose the thing is, with Button way out of the points, it might have been useful to bring Button in as soon as possible, fit primes to Buttons car and then see how he coped. If he was faster on primes that inter's hey could fit them to Hamilton a couple of laps later.
Thing is, as well, McLaren chose to fit the options to Hamiltons car, probably to get maximum grip, and then only have an expected lifespan of around 10-15 laps and they DID keep Hamilton out on the inter's until 15 laps from the end before swapping to the options.
They
could have fitted primes earlier but if they'd fitted them too soon Hamilton might have gone even slower and been caught by Webber or, even worse, he could have found them undriveable and been forced to pit yet again for options, thus losing even more places.
I think McLaren probably made "conservative" tyre choices in the closing stages of the race to defend Hamiltons 3rd place rather than trying anything sneaky to attempt to get an advantage.
Tell you one thing that concerns me though...
Whenever something like this happens, you always seem to hear Hamilton, on the radio, saying "What's everybody else doing?"
F**k what everybody else is doing Lewis! You're a big lad now and you've been around long enough to make your OWN tyre choices.
Pick whatever YOU think is fastest in the current conditions rather than worrying about doing the same as everybody else.