“Frustrates Me Like Hell” – Rosberg Criticizes Hamilton’s F1 Race Engineer for Strategic Errors

While Verstappen credited his win to the exemplary team strategy on Red Bull’s part, Mercedes may have fumbled a bit with Hamilton. Racing second, Mercedes asked Hamilton to box at an unusual time; which may have caused him to give Verstappen the easy win.

Hamilton’s former teammate, Nico Rosberg, criticized the team for their messy strategy. After his second pit-stop, Hamilton faced a lot of traffic upon rejoining the track. Rosberg disapproved of the faulty timing on the Silver Arrows‘ part.

Giving his insight, the champion said, “They’ve had a couple of moments, not their usual high level of strategy. Something going on. This evening, they’ll be some serious discussions.” In addition to figuring out the faults in strategy, Rosberg adds Bono to his line of fire.

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The German found fault in the team radio. Rosberg explained that Peter Bonnington’s instructions on when Hamilton needs to push were obscure. “So unclear, should he push now or not. What is he doing? As a driver, this frustrates me like hell. I’m like come on, give us clear guidance. That was below par from Bono today.”

Mercedes seem to have been all over the place on Sunday- with Bottas‘ disobeying team orders for fun and Hamilton’s strategies; are the team losing their edge?

A difficult one for Hamilton & Mercedes

While the 2-3 finish isn’t something to complain about, Mercedes is accustomed to the 1-2 finish. Especially for Lewis, who was second only in one race last season. Red Bull impressed with pace on Sunday- Verstappen managing his lead and Perez making the climb to P8. Toto Wolff rightly said, “50% of the race was lost yesterday [qualifying]” 

Lacking the pace at Zandvoort, Mercedes was reliant on its strategy. However, that didn’t work either. Wolff is clearly disappointed; he said, “We weren’t just good enough overall in the race. Pace- wise we would’ve been there but when you’re second on the row you’re always the loser.”

As the battle closes in, the second triple-header of the season has the potential to turn things either way. While Verstappen knows Monza isn’t a strong track for the team, there’s a lot of anticipation heading to the Italian GP.

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