McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh was adamant that the tyre mix-up at Lewis Hamilton final pit-stop did not cost its driver victory in Valencia – insisting Rubens Barrichello’s superior speed meant the Brawn driver was always going to win the race.
Hamilton’s chances of holding onto his long-time race lead through the second pit stop phase were scuppered when the team didn’t have fresh tyres ready for him in the pit lane, the delay adding vital seconds to his stop.
Barrichello, due to stay out several laps longer and already setting fastest laps in a bid to overhaul Hamilton’s pre-pit stop advantage of 3.7s, then had his own stop brought forward several laps before returning to the track to take the lead.
With the widespread initial reaction after the race being that the blunder had cost Hamilton a second successive win, Whitmarsh attempted to downplay the impact of the mistake – claiming it only cost Hamilton two or three seconds in time.
The team boss explained that the McLaren pit wall, sensing that Barrichello was set to jump its driver in any case, looked into the possibility of stretching Hamilton’s fuel load out for one extra lap.
However, Whitmarsh says by the time the team had confirmation Hamilton could run a lap longer, the Briton was already en-route to the pit lane as originally scheduled – meaning the team wasn’t fully prepared for his arrival.
“Lewis was scheduled to stop in lap 37 and Heikki was scheduled to stop in lap 38,” Whitmarsh explained to reporters.
“We were obviously fighting Rubens – probably Rubens was going to beat us whatever we did – but nonetheless we thought we could enhance the possibility of beating Rubens by going one lap later.
“But we didn’t know if we had the fuel – and you certainly don’t want to run out of fuel – so Lewis was told early on ‘we are going to stop lap 37’, but then we asked the fuel man to keep us up to date.
“He informed us we could make one more lap so that gave us the opportunity to reverse the stops of the two drivers, so we decided to give that a go very late.
“That was communicated to Lewis once he was committed to coming in, which was too late, and because we sent the crew out without the tyres, because we didn’t know which car was going to come in first, to get the tyres out we lost two, three seconds maximum which was disappointing, but didn’t materially affect the outcome of the race.
“Rubens was quick and running longer than us, and in fact after that was able to stop a little bit early to cover us, and had us beaten by race pace, not as a consequence about what happened in the pit lane.
Whitmarsh added that even if its change of pit stop strategy had gone to plan Hamilton still wouldn’t have emerged ahead of Barrichello seeing as the Brazilian, despite an earlier than necessary pit stop, emerged just over six seconds in the lead.
“Had we run the extra lap, then that in itself would have given us a second in relation to Rubens had we not made the mistake [which cost] two or three seconds, but he was six or seven seconds [ahead] even after he had stopped early,” he said.
“Had we had the perfect stop one lap later, Rubens would probably have run two to three laps longer anyway.
“To be honest, he had us beaten and we were trying to see if there was anything we could do to put pressure on him and in doing that we put a bit too much pressure on ourseleves.”
While Hamilton’s pace on the soft tyres in the closing laps was largely academic given Barrichello’s advantage, Whitmarsh believes the final stint showed the team that would have been better to run that compound during Hamilton’s long middle stint.
Nevertheless, while he believes McLaren wasn’t that far behind Brawn on pace, he insists whatever fuel or tyre strategy it had chosen wouldn't have fundamentally changed the result.
“Interestingly, Lewis’s pace on the final prime, in hindsight, Lewis’s second longer stint would probably have been better on the prime tyre," Whitmarsh noted.
“So, I have to say, there wasn’t that much in it and I have to say again I don’t think it was our tyre strategy that cost us the race, we just weren’t quick enough in the race to win today.
“We had very little running during this weekend, but the data we have now, probably, the prime in the longer stints was better than the option tyre.
“We had to do a lot with the option tyre just to keep the temperature down and to make sure it stayed in good condition.”
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