Lewis Hamilton was left frustrated by Ferrari strategy after the Dutch Grand Prix. Image: XPB Images
Hamilton finished fourth at Zandvoort after mounting a late challenge on George Russell, but the seven-time world champion was left frustrated by Ferrari’s handling of its two cars during the middle of the race.
Starting fifth, Hamilton spent much of the opening half of the grand prix behind Leclerc before adopting a longer-running strategy that left him with a tyre advantage over several of those around him.
That began to pay off as the race progressed, with Hamilton passing Oscar Piastri and then quickly closing in on Leclerc during the second stint.
Hamilton felt he had significantly more pace than his teammate and made his frustration clear over the radio as Ferrari worked through how to manage the situation.
Ferrari eventually cleared the way by bringing Leclerc into the pits, allowing Hamilton to continue his charge towards the front.
“Great way of wasting time guys, good job,” Hamilton sarcastically responded over the radio after Leclerc finally stopped.
His frustration remained after the race, particularly after he fell narrowly short of taking third from Russell in the closing stages.
“Firstly, the guys in the garage did a fantastic job,” Hamilton told Sky F1.
“Pit stops, strategy was generally very, very good. The car felt awesome and they have continued to work so hard.
“We brought a bit of an upgrade here. We are just chipping away at it all the time.
“This first half of the season we have been losing three to five tenths on the straight depending on which track we go to and that’s a hard deficit to overcome just through the corners. But we are close.
“But today was definitely frustrating for me. I’m here to win and I really believe that this team can win.
“We couldn’t win this race but to win championships you have to pick up every point and the last few races have been difficult with penalties.
“Today, I lost several seconds behind Charles, which I think ultimately would have made the difference at the end, but we will take it offline.
“My goal is to try and lead this team to the championship and we’ve got some work to do for sure.”
Hamilton’s strategy briefly put him into the lead before a late Virtual Safety Car offered Ferrari the chance to make another stop at reduced cost.
He initially questioned the team’s intentions over the radio, asking: “Are you using me as a guinea pig?”, before pitting and returning to the race in fourth.
The fresh tyres gave Hamilton an opportunity to hunt down Russell, but his attack was complicated by Ferrari’s straight-line deficit to Mercedes.
Hamilton nevertheless felt the earlier delay behind Leclerc had left him with too much ground to recover when the opportunity to fight for the final podium position emerged.
“It felt like it was the closest opportunity I had,” Hamilton said when asked whether the late VSC had prevented him from taking third.
“I think I’d come out of [Turn] 14 pretty close to him and I was just opening SM [Straight Line Mode] and just getting on the boost.
“I don’t know whether or not we would have got by because the Mercedes is just so quick. You saw the McLaren fly past just on power. We’re losing like four tenths a lap here just on straight lines.
“So that was a challenge, but I do think the time was lost when I was behind Charles, which ultimately meant I had a bigger distance to cover to try and catch up with George at the end.”
Russell ultimately held on to third behind Antonelli and race winner Norris, leaving Hamilton fourth and Leclerc fifth.
Hamilton contrasted Ferrari’s approach with Mercedes later in the race, when his former team swiftly swapped Russell and Kimi Antonelli to give the latter an opportunity to attack race leader Lando Norris on fresher tyres.
“It is difficult when you’re looking ahead and you see the two Mercedes drivers, they get the call and it’s done – they execute straight away,” he told F1 TV.
“They let Kimi by and let him get on with the race. I was on a different strategy. It’s not the same here and that’s a little bit difficult, but we just have to take it.”
The result moved Hamilton level with Russell in second in the championship, 59 points behind leader Antonelli with 11 rounds remaining.