Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team CEO and Team Principal Toto Wolff congratulated Lewis Hamilton on reaching the incredible record of ninety-two race wins.
Since Hamilton joined Mercedes back in 2013, he has gone on to win seventy-two races with the team.
Wolff credits everything Hamilton he has done over the eight season and hopes it can continue. Although the team are looking to be in a comfortable situation, he is glad we got to see the McLaren F1 Team cars fight for position and even see Carlos Sainz Jr. leading the race at one point.
“92 race wins, who would have thought that when we embarked on the project in 2013? It’s almost a surreal number of wins. It is absolute passion, energy, and everything that Lewis puts into the sport. The talent and the ability just stand out. I think what I’ve seen this year for the first time with Lewis is that he ramps up his weekends,” said Wolff.
“There is a lot of reflection, a lot of learning, understanding the tyres for the race, and he was just sitting comfortably at the beginning during opening laps, then he just ramped it up and then had unbelievable pace. I think he did it a couple of times now that he was applying pressure, and he was putting Valtteri in a worse position in relation to the tyres. He’s just very good at that strategically. The opening laps were very enjoyable.
“It was amazing to see the McLarens when they were heating their tyres very well when they were on the Softs. You could hear the public screaming when Sainz got into the lead, so I think this is what the sport needs; I was happy for us that we were able to catch up, but I like the situation. It’s been a very good day. I’m not sure how I’m going to celebrate because we are living like hermits at the moment, but I am flying to see my wife and my son today, and I’m sure we will have a dinner with maybe a few drinks.”
Shovlin ‘Proud’ after Hamilton’s Masterclass in Portugal
Andrew Shovlin, Chief Race Engineer, is just as proud as everyone is in the Mercedes team of the feat that Hamilton has reached.
Not only does Shovlin praise his new record but the way he wins races. He called Hamiltons win at the Portuguese Grand Prix a ‘masterclass’.
Shovlin said: “An absolute masterclass from Lewis today, he managed the race brilliantly and had incredible pace. It’s amazing to think that now he sits at the very top of the list of winners in the sport and the whole team is very proud of him and what he has achieved. It’s also great to be able to add another one-two finish to our season.
“The start was tricky for both, the medium tyre is difficult to get to work but it seemed like some others had much better warm-up that we did. Valtteri did really well to take the position back off Verstappen after losing it off the line, it was a nice move into turn 3 and once he’d got some temperature in the tyres he was able to pass the McLaren and drove a well-managed first stint. He started to drop a bit of temperature in his tyres around ten laps into the stint which was making the car inconsistent.
“Lewis at that point had a bit of pace in hand and was able to make the pass. We were surprised how well the medium tyres were hanging on during that first stint and they went further than we had anticipated but when Valtteri picked up a bit of vibration we decided to stop both cars to take hard to the finish. The warm-up on that compound wasn’t easy but it had good pace once it was going although we were glad there wasn’t any significant rain as it would have been a real handful.
“We’re looking forward to Imola next week, we’ve not been there for a long time but it’s a good track and the two-day format should make it interesting.“
