Lewis Hamilton Takes a Sly Dig at F1’s Safety Car Ahead of the Portuguese Grand Prix

The last race at the Eifel Grand Prix saw drivers struggling to bring their tires up to the required temperature during the safety car period. Certain drivers, including Lewis Hamilton, criticized the safety car for going too slow on several occasions.

Following the pole position yesterday during the Qualifying session in Portugal, Lewis is expecting the safety car restarts to be difficult in the race as he took a dig at the safety car’s potential pace on the track today.

Lewis felt that getting his tires up to the optimum temperature could be his biggest challenge for the race today. “If it is dry, restarts will be really difficult with the tires, with the speed that safety car goes, which I won’t comment much on,” he said.

“Yeah, it’s going to be a tough race, that’s for sure since we’ve never been here as well.” Lewis also mentioned that with rainy and windy conditions expected on Sunday, he is completely blind-folded going into the race.

“Really don’t know what to expect tomorrow. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow. Windy and wet, would really be ice tomorrow if we have that. I just think we have to prepare for all scenarios,” Lewis admitted.

If the race in Portugal turns out the way Lewis is expecting it to be, this could end up being one of the hardest races for the Formula 1 drivers in 2020.

Lewis Hamilton aware of the potential threat from Max Verstappen at the start

Lewis acknowledged that he needs to get a good start to keep himself safe from Max Verstappen, who will be starting the race on Softs. “I don’t know. I’ve not really spoken to the team about it.

“I think it’s going to be a very tricky race, particularly when you’ve got the harder tire,” Lewis said. “It doesn’t really work for several laps. Obviously, we lose a little bit of performance to Max and the guys behind on the Softs.”

Considering the track’s nature, it could well be tricky at the start going into Turn 1. Since the track will coast downwards into the first turn, many drivers are expected to late brake with their cold tires, and this could potentially cause some an incident.

Despite the fact that the track does not provide the drivers any chance to overtake, the race could still be an interesting one to watch today.

In addition, with elements like rain and wind looking to make a dramatic entry half-way through the race, it is going to be a huge headache for the teams to bring their cars into the pits at the right time.

The race is entirely up to the teams’ strategy for their drivers. So, can Mercedes get it all right and give Lewis the win in this race at Portugal Grand Prix?