Hamilton rues costly qualifying strategy

2011 Monaco GP qualifying analysis

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Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Monaco, 2011

“With hindsight, we probably should have put a banker in” was Lewis Hamilton’s assessment of his performance in qualifying in Monaco.

Failing to do a time earlier in Q3 cost him when the session was interrupted by a red flag.

Hamilton set a time that was only good enough for seventh. He said: “I had no temperature in my tyres or my brakes, so I didn’t manage to pull a great lap together.”

Making matters worse, the lap was later deleted by the stewards and he was relegated even further down the grid.

Examine all the data from Monaco qualifying below.

Qualifying times in full

DriverCarQ1

Q2 (vs Q1)

Q3 (vs Q2)
1Sebastian VettelRed Bull1’15.6061’14.277 (-1.329)1’13.556 (-0.721)
2Jenson ButtonMcLaren1’15.3971’14.545 (-0.852)1’13.997 (-0.548)
3Mark WebberRed Bull1’16.0871’14.742 (-1.345)1’14.019 (-0.723)
4Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’16.0511’14.569 (-1.482)1’14.483 (-0.086)
5Michael SchumacherMercedes1’16.0921’14.981 (-1.111)1’14.682 (-0.299)
6Felipe MassaFerrari1’16.3091’14.648 (-1.661)1’14.877 (+0.229)
7Lewis HamiltonMcLaren1’15.2071’14.275 (-0.932)1’15.280 (+1.005)
8Nico RosbergMercedes1’15.8581’14.741 (-1.117)1’15.766 (+1.025)
9Pastor MaldonadoWilliams1’15.8191’15.545 (-0.274)1’16.528 (+0.983)
10Sergio PerezSauber1’15.9181’15.482 (-0.436)
11Vitaly PetrovRenault1’16.3781’15.815 (-0.563)
12Rubens BarrichelloWilliams1’16.6161’15.826 (-0.790)
13Kamui KobayashiSauber1’16.5131’15.973 (-0.540)
14Paul di RestaForce India1’16.8131’16.118 (-0.695)
15Adrian SutilForce India1’16.6001’16.121 (-0.479)
16Nick HeidfeldRenault1’16.6811’16.214 (-0.467)
17Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso1’16.3581’16.300 (-0.058)
18Heikki KovalainenLotus1’17.343
19Jarno TrulliLotus1’17.381
20Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso1’17.820
21Timo GlockVirgin1’17.914
22Jerome d’AmbrosioVirgin1’18.736

Team mate comparisons

Compare the best times of each team’s drivers in the last part of qualifying in which they both set a time.

  • Paul di Resta beat Adrian Sutil again – but only by a very small margin
  • Michael Schumacher out-qualified Nico Rosberg for the first time this year
  • Sergio Perez comfortably beat Kamui Kobayashi to gain a place in the final ten
TeamDriverLap timeGapLap timeDriverRound
Red BullSebastian Vettel1’13.556-0.4631’14.019Mark WebberQ3
McLarenLewis Hamilton1’15.280+1.2831’13.997Jenson ButtonQ3
FerrariFernando Alonso1’14.483-0.3941’14.877Felipe MassaQ3
MercedesMichael Schumacher1’14.682-1.0841’15.766Nico RosbergQ3
RenaultNick Heidfeld1’16.214+0.3991’15.815Vitaly PetrovQ2
WilliamsRubens Barrichello1’15.826+0.2811’15.545Pastor MaldonadoQ2
Force IndiaAdrian Sutil1’16.121+0.0031’16.118Paul di RestaQ2
SauberKamui Kobayashi1’15.973+0.4911’15.482Sergio PerezQ2
Toro RossoSebastien Buemi1’16.358-1.4621’17.820Jaime AlguersuariQ1
LotusHeikki Kovalainen1’17.343-0.0381’17.381Jarno TrulliQ1
VirginTimo Glock1’17.914-0.8221’18.736Jerome d’AmbrosioQ1

Sector times

Here are the drivers’ best times in each sector.

  • The performance of the Sauber drivers is strikingly different in each sector, suggesting very different approaches
  • Vettel was fastest in all three sectors
DriverSector 1Sector 2Sector 3
Sebastian Vettel19.162 (1)34.367 (1)20.027 (1)
Jenson Button19.227 (2)34.622 (3)20.088 (2)
Mark Webber19.388 (4)34.439 (2)20.192 (3)
Fernando Alonso19.413 (5)34.691 (6)20.296 (5)
Michael Schumacher19.483 (9)34.704 (7)20.398 (7)
Felipe Massa19.430 (6)34.731 (8)20.353 (6)
Lewis Hamilton19.332 (3)34.632 (4)20.243 (4)
Nico Rosberg19.433 (7)34.652 (5)20.656 (10)
Pastor Maldonado19.615 (11)35.291 (10)20.590 (9)
Sergio Perez19.473 (8)35.353 (13)20.559 (8)
Vitaly Petrov19.542 (10)35.324 (12)20.883 (16)
Rubens Barrichello19.667 (13)35.312 (11)20.677 (12)
Kamui Kobayashi19.765 (15)35.239 (9)20.904 (17)
Paul di Resta19.852 (16)35.478 (14)20.668 (11)
Adrian Sutil19.763 (14)35.483 (15)20.875 (15)
Nick Heidfeld19.623 (12)35.517 (16)20.862 (14)
Sebastien Buemi19.928 (17)35.519 (17)20.775 (13)
Heikki Kovalainen20.391 (20)35.841 (19)21.084 (19)
Jarno Trulli20.359 (19)35.967 (20)21.055 (18)
Jaime Alguersuari20.134 (18)35.746 (18)21.212 (20)
Timo Glock20.402 (21)36.092 (21)21.388 (22)
Jerome d’Ambrosio20.792 (22)36.580 (22)21.364 (21)

Speed trap

  • Straight line speed is far less important at Monaco than at other tracks
PosDriverCarSpeed (kph)Gap
1Adrian SutilForce India285.6
2Jenson ButtonMcLaren284.7-0.9
3Paul di RestaForce India284.3-1.3
4Lewis HamiltonMcLaren284.1-1.5
5Michael SchumacherMercedes284.1-1.5
6Rubens BarrichelloWilliams283.8-1.8
7Pastor MaldonadoWilliams283.7-1.9
8Nico RosbergMercedes283.5-2.1
9Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso283.0-2.6
10Vitaly PetrovRenault283.0-2.6
11Nick HeidfeldRenault282.7-2.9
12Felipe MassaFerrari282.2-3.4
13Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso281.9-3.7
14Jarno TrulliLotus280.2-5.4
15Sebastian VettelRed Bull280.1-5.5
16Fernando AlonsoFerrari280.0-5.6
17Sergio PerezSauber279.9-5.7
18Heikki KovalainenLotus279.8-5.8
19Kamui KobayashiSauber279.7-5.9
20Mark WebberRed Bull278.6-7.0
21Timo GlockVirgin277.8-7.8
22Jerome d’AmbrosioVirgin277.7-7.9

2011 Spanish Grand Prix

    Browse all 2011 Spanish Grand Prix articles

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    55 comments on “Hamilton rues costly qualifying strategy”

    1. Hamilton’s strategy of doing only one lap at the end of the session has been used before. Maybe in Monaco it would have been better to use another approach as crashes are frequent and red flags were possible.

      1. That’s the key point….location….location…location. Monaco wasn’t the place for his engineers and strategists to have advised a one stint stop during Q3, and Lewis shouldn’t have agreed.

        1. He already blamed the boys if indeed was not his idea. :)

          1. He already blamed the boys if indeed was not his idea.

            Nope. It is not in this article, but he said:

            “Engineers advise that we should do one [run] at the end of Q3 and I didn’t contest it. You always have to take a balanced view with the engineers.

            I definitely didn’t take into account – and I know they didn’t either – that in Monaco you can’t take risks in leaving it [your lap] right to the end.

            It is clear that he takes the blame with his engineers about the strategic mistake.

            1. Not so sure. What I’m getting from him is, “Don’t look at me. I was just following orders.”

        2. Yeah, and its not even like the tyres look to be a big problem to use them in Q3 in Monaco as they are pretty durable for the race.

    2. Bet he’s one of the first out next year !

    3. Big Hamilton fan but he needs to start taking the reign a bit more when it comes to strategy if he’s not happy with it and stop blaming the team.

      1. I agree with you, but cue Hamilton getting it wrong one race in ten and people saying he should listen to his engineers ;)

      2. “With hindsight, we probably should have put a banker in”

        How did he blame the team?

        I’m pretty sure he decided himself that he was going to do only one run.

      3. Who’s to say he didn’t make the call?

      4. I don’t know if you guys have BBC access but he said so in an interview. Actually, what he said was ‘I didn’t take into account and the team definitely, they clearly didn’t take into account that at Monaco you can’t take risks’

        1. If they want pole in front of the quicker Red Bull team they might have to…

          Hind sight is great, but one run at the end has worked before this year.

    4. Can’t get worse for Hamilton. P7 is already too bad. And people please read Hamilton’s interview before blaming him. He clearly mentioned that he was against the one-run in Q3 but his engineers insisted that it’s the best stretegy.

      “In Monaco you can’t take risks and leave it right to the end, you have to get a banker in, as everyone else did.”

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/formula_one/13585309.stm

      Mclaren let down Hamilton again with a very ordinary stretegy. They can’t afford to make any mistake esepcially when RBR is so strong and running away with the championship.

      1. How did McLaren let Hamilton down with a bad strategy?

        Earlier on in the year he was bleating about the team wasting a set of fresh tyres doing 2 runs in Q1.

        Now it’s the team’s fault that they only did 1 run.

        Once again, Hamilton has his “100% foolproof hindsight visor” on after he gets out of the car. It’s amazing that visor doesn’t seem to work at all when he’s in the car, and he never seems to have any suggestions of his own. At least when Button feels the need to mention that the team might have made a balls of things, he does so to explain the result – nothing more or less. You never get the impression that he’s about to throw his toys out of the pram.

        Most important, you get the impression Button thinks about what the engineers tell him, analyses it, and decided whether or not he agrees. And if he does, he say “WE” made the wrong call, not “the team” made the wrong call.

        1. Exactly!

          it’s not very polite to complain about your own team and blame them for something that went wrong.

        2. Did you read / watch the interview Hamilton gave after the race? He said “we” should have put a banker in, as well as (paraphrased) “neither the engineers nor I took into account the risk of having just one run at Monaco”.

          There was no 100% foolproof hindsight visor on, and there was no “it was the team who screwed up”.

          He was, however, clearly disappointed he didn’t challenge the advise from his engineers (he said he didn’t contest it) – which is the one valid criticism you can sometimes level at him, I think.

          1. ‘I didn’t take into account and the team definitely, they clearly didn’t take into account that at Monaco you can’t take risks’

            That’s not the same as “we” did anything. That’s finger pointing.

            Hamilton is one of the most naturally quick drivers ever, and on track he’s a master. Where he is less of a complete driver than Button, however, is that at times like that – when he should have the ability to override the engineers and call his own strategy – he doesn’t. He goes along with it, then complains about the engineers, or the team, in public afterwards.

            This sort of thing is a partnership. The team don’t deliberately guess, or make a mess of things. They analysed the data and made a prediction of the best way to do things. In that, they would have been aware that burning two sets of tyres is something Hamilton would want to avoid. Lewis needs to have a clear head about what he wants to do, and when is the time for him to speak up and say “No, I want to do X instead.” Button has done it – and when it hasn’t worked for him, he’s said it was his call and his mistake.

    5. Also shows how Vettel had 0.5 over Webber all day (and weekend so far really)

    6. How can hammy have faster times than those in 5th 6th place in all 3 sectors yet be slower overall? I’m boggled.

      1. Those sector times were in Q2 probably

      2. They are best sector times so could have been set on different laps.

        1. His Q2 time would have got him 4th so they are probably Q2 times

    7. He is a big man who should have done the right thing himself instead of taking dictations. While his partner and others were in their cars, he was arrogantly chilling outside his car chatting.

    8. After the disaster with tyres at the Malaysian GP, Lewis has been focusing on saving his tyres for the rest of this season, which is why I think he was faster than Vettel at the end of the Spanish GP. Clearly was the wrong decision today, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. If the session hadn’t been red flagged I’m sure we would have seen Lewis at least on the front row with an extra set of tyres over Vettel with everyone commending the team on such a smart strategy. It’s just what you have to accept from a high risk high reward strategy.

      1. The main point is that he could save one set of tyres but making one lap at the BEGINING of the session, and not at the end. A lot of things could happen…

    9. What’s the use in having a new set of tyres when the degradation as been fine?? Track position is vital here more than anything! I’m sick of mclaren with there stupid strategies, vettel will walk it now

      1. Super-softs are worth upto 1S/lap over the soft. Trouble is there are so few places to pass at Monaco that better tyres might not be that much of an advantage.

    10. sid_prasher (@)
      28th May 2011, 21:57

      To come out and put the blame on his engineers for his error is a bit unbecoming for a champion.

      1. So is having your team-mate give his victory up for you, or saying you will do everything to help another team win to stop someone from winning.

        We only remember the things we want to in these cases.

        1. sid_prasher (@)
          28th May 2011, 22:23

          How is that related?
          He took a risk of doing a single run and it didn’t work out…

          1. You said it was unbecoming of a champion. I was pointing out other examples of champions not exactly acting in a becoming manner. I was only addressing what you’d already brought up.

            1. Nice of you to agree that its unbecoming of a champion….although in a round about fashion.

            2. I agree blaming your engineers is unbecoming. But I never said Hamilton blamed his engineers and not himself too. Nice try.

      2. When his engineers constantly make bad calls and expect the driver to do the impossible lewis needs to look at his role model and move teams. Are you in to win or just to get a few wins per season.

        Tomorrow he should start on the softs and make them last as long as he can and hope for safety car hopefully the HRTs will fire the first solvo into the barriers and hope the track is hot is spits out the tyres.

        But at the end of the day this is Monaco the worst track ever for motorsport in the modern day.

    11. Hamilton said that he thought that he could take pole here, could he beat Vettel’s time? i seriously doubt, RedBull is still ahead in qualing.

    12. I think the big story here is actually that McLaren thought one run was the way to go. Nevermind that Hamilton made the wrong choice, McLaren thought it was the right choice.

      They have been very strange with strategy of late, often getting the big things right and then failing on small things like undercuts. It’s costing them badly, arguably for the second race in a row. You wouldn’t expect this from McLaren.

      1. mclaren have been making mistakes like this since whitmarsh has taken the lead of this team. a top team like this should not be making basic errors – especially at monaco where they have a good track record.

        and Icthyes, yes i heard the interview and concur.

        i am fuming.

    13. why is Hamilton complaining about not putting a banker lap in when he could have easily carried on when Massa pulled out of the way…!

    14. in hindsight hamilton will be remembered as the most talented pair of hands behind the wheels with a pretty ordinary brain coupled alongwith

    15. Keith – Hamilton’s time was deleted so it shouldn’t be in the table above. I think it needs to revert to Q2 times as he didn’t actually set a time in Q3.

    16. Tell him again Dave. Keith, you have to put “no time” Driving over the chicane is illegal, and if Hamilton went 2 seconds faster I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t post it up. Please Kieth.

    17. Well we don’t hear Button wingeing about Macca’s strategy at Monaco do we. :)

      Just get on with it Lewis.

      1. Perhaps because they got it right with him? Why would you whinge about 2nd on the grid, that’s a strange logic there…

        1. Well I’m a strange kind of person, but it suggests a few things to me. In Button’s case, Macca said you aren’t going out and Button said yes I am, or they said you’re going out and he said OK.

          In Ham’s case Macca said you aren’t going out and Ham said ok, or they said you’re going out and he said no I’m not.

          To wit: someone made a good call and someone made a really bad call, but I have faith in Lewis. I think he’ll do fine from 9th.

          On a light hearted note I think we can say logically we can say that all F1 pilots are wingers, but not all wingers are F1 pilots. :)

          1. Ermmm… should read as.

            On a light hearted note I think we can say logically that all F1 pilots are wingers, but not all wingers are F1 pilots. :)

        2. Oh by the way, thanks for the link yesterday about the article Keith did last year on Monaco regarding the swimming poll course change.

          Great stuff!

    18. I can’t believe McLaren never seems to learn from their mistakes, they blew quali last year by not sending drivers out to put a lap in, did it again yesterday.

      One question – as Lewis now officially has ‘no time’ for Q3, do the team have a free choice of tyres for the race? Starting on the soft instead of the super soft and running a long first stint might be a way to give Lewis a chance to move up the grid.

    19. @kevin, it’s clear to You huh? I bet You haven’t even travelled the world extensively enough to make such an assessment. I am very sick of the anti- American sentiment on certain f1 related sites. All of Us aren’t arrogant, Some of Us even hate oval racing too. Making broad, sweeping generalizations is typically reserved for bigots and fools. Which one are You? Maybe, You’re just an uncultured oaf that doesnt mind offending several hundred million people. Either way, whatever country You claim paws in comparison to My beloved Homeland! Eat it Kook!

    20. That should be pales

    21. Can we stop blaming McLaren and start blaming Hamilton and his engineers. You will have noticed that on the other side of the garage, they used a different strategy.

      1. So presumably you are full of praise for Hamilton and his engineers getting it right in Turkey and Button and his engineers getting it wrong.

        1. Touche!

    22. Another gut wrenching McLaren ERROR @ the most important point in the 2011 championship which most likely will have cost them – Hamilton – the DC just as the Monza Hamilton mistake 2010 did! What a gut-grinding awful weekend – – – for me!;-)

    Comments are closed.