Lewis Hamilton left the Monaco Grand Prix deflated after missing out on a podium for Ferrari following a grid penalty.
Hamilton initially lined up fourth on the grid but was forced to start from seventh after being handed a penalty for impeding Max Verstappen in qualifying.
Ferrari’s team radio showed that Hamilton did everything he could to avoid a penalty, but communication errors appeared to be a trend for the seven-time world champion in Monaco.
In the race, he also suffered from similar problems when he asked engineer Ricciardo Adami twice what the gap was to the car ahead, having been told completely different information initially.
Discussing Hamilton’s race on F1 TV, Jolyon Palmer and Alex Brundle felt Ferrari missed an opportunity to put pressure on Verstappen in the race.
Jolyon Palmer thinks Lewis Hamilton could’ve put pressure on Max Verstappen
Hamilton recovered to fifth place in the race after Fernando Alonso retired from the race midway through, and Ferrari managed to jump Isack Hadjar by extending Hamilton’s first stint.
Ferrari put Hamilton on used mediums at the end of the race, but the Briton ended up two seconds per lap slower. Palmer felt this was a missed opportunity, given how Verstappen waited until the last lap to make his pit stop.
“Ferrari could’ve used Hamilton at the end of the race. Max at the end was backing up Lando and that was helping Leclerc to put pressure on Lando, so that was good,” said Palmer.
“But if there was red flag at that point, Max is going to be ahead. If Lewis was closer, it would’ve forced Max to pit to cover him off. It was a curious race for Hamilton, but he was quicker than the Red Bull.”
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Alex Brundle feels Lewis Hamilton could’ve given Ferrari options against McLaren
The teams were forced to pit twice in the race as part of new rules specifically for Monaco to generate more exchanges of position. Jenson Button felt the teams made a ‘mockery’ of the rules, because they were using their second cars as backstops to generate gaps for a pit stop.
Brundle felt Ferrari missed out on an opportunity with Hamilton to put McLaren under pressure, as Charles Leclerc chased down Lando Norris for the win.
“Ferrari could’ve really used him [Hamilton] up front to give them somewhere else to go when McLaren were busy pushing Leclerc around on strategy at the front of the field,” said Brundle.
“But a) he didn’t have the starting position and b) even at the times when the front four were pushing, it looked like Hamilton couldn’t keep up with them and they missed out.”
Ferrari are still outside of the top three in the Constructors’ Championship after a tough start to the year, but their pace in Monaco will give them some encouragement, given that they did not expect to be competitive.
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