Lewis Hamilton Recalls Ferrari Tyre Debate After Bahrain GP in Malaysia

Lewis Hamilton secured a third-place finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on October 4, 2026, after fighting back from an early tyre choice. Heavy rain at the Sepang International Circuit and a software glitch delayed the start, leading Ferrari to gamble on slick tires while rivals started on intermediates.

The Sepang International Circuit hosted a chaotic Formula 1 return after a nine-year absence, starting with a 93-minute delay caused by monsoon-level rain and a subsequent software issue across all cars that affected the formation lap. When the race finally got underway, the grid split on tire choice as teams attempted to read damp track conditions following the lengthy delay.

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Ferrari Chooses Slick Tires as Hamilton Qualifies Second

Hamilton had qualified second on the grid behind polesitter Max Verstappen following a strong performance for Scuderia Ferrari. However, engine issues on the formation lap struck his car before the team reset its software.

The strategy immediately unraveled.

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Hamilton Debates Strategy With the Pit Wall

Radio transcripts and post-race interviews revealed the friction between the driver and the pit wall before the lights went out. Hamilton inspected the circuit conditions himself prior to the start.

There was such a long wait and we were debating on what tyre to go on to. And I said, ‘look, there was a lot of spray on the laps to the grid’. And I went into the pit lane, I looked at the ground, I was like, ‘it’s still wet’. I went to the pit wall and I was like, ‘it’s still wet’.

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Ferrari engineer Carlo Santi countered that the pit wall saw the track drying from safety car onboard data and insisted the crossover point had arrived. But when Hamilton pulled out behind Max Verstappen and saw the heavy spray coming off the Red Bull, alongside Kimi Antonelli emerging on intermediates, reality set in.

And then, the other side, with the debates we were having in the background, to then see the covers come off the other car ahead on wets and us on slicks, and the track being so tricky and dangerous at the beginning, my heart sank. I was kind of like, ‘That’s the race over’.

Lewis Hamilton Recalls Ferrari Tyre Debate After Bahrain GP in Malaysia — Photo: espn.co.uk

Within four laps, Hamilton sat more than a minute behind the leaders as he fought to keep his car on the asphalt on slick rubber. When the pit wall later asked if he wanted to pit for intermediates, Hamilton rejected the call, calculating that an extra stop would only compound his losses and elected to wait out the drying track.

Safety Cars Allow Hamilton to Charge to the Podium

Valtteri Bottas triggered a safety car when he beached his Cadillac in the gravel, bunching up the field and erasing the gap that had put Hamilton a minute behind. As the Sepang asphalt dried, Hamilton finally switched on his soft tires and launched an aggressive recovery drive through the scoring order.

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A late power unit failure for George Russell and an overtake on Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar propelled Hamilton into third place at the checkered flag. Max Verstappen claimed victory for Red Bull from pole position, finishing 2.3 seconds ahead of Kimi Antonelli in second. Charles Leclerc rebounded from a first-lap collision that required a new nose box to finish fourth behind his teammate after starting on intermediates.

Team Leaders Discuss the Strategy After the Race

Speaking to media after the race, Hamilton described his feelings as a mixture of gratitude and missed victory, joking about his team’s strategic roll of the dice while confirming he had no immediate plans to gamble at a casino with his engineers.

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Ferrari Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur defended the strategy from the pit wall while acknowledging they ended up on the wrong side of the split, noting that roughly half the grid took slicks and pointing out the difficulty of judging full track conditions from pit lane during a week when strong results were needed to quell media speculation surrounding Vasseur’s future.