Could Hamilton have won under normal conditions? Mercedes boss suggests otherwise

Could Lewis Hamilton have won the Russian Grand Prix even if it hadn’t started raining at the end of the race? That’s a question that has sparked much speculation in recent hours. Toto Wolff made an interesting statement, how does he see it for McLaren?

The Russian Grand Prix really had it all. And, as is usual, there was a massive debate on social media about whether Hamilton could have won at all if it hadn’t started raining.

Lando Norris set a truly admirable pace, and also managed to keep Hamilton behind him thanks to his flawless driving and the great top speed of his monoposto. A few laps from the end, however, the rain began to fall on the Sochi circuit, which intensified significantly on lap 50.

And this is where a crucial decision was made – while Hamilton and the rest of the field pitted for intermediate tyres, Norris decided to stay. However, the intensity of the rain continued to intensify, which ultimately proved fatal for the McLaren driver.

It was Hamilton who scored his 100th career victory. Not only him, but also Toto Wolff, the Mercedes boss, admitted that it would have been very difficult to overtake the McLaren driver in normal conditions.

“As far as the race is concerned, I think in dry conditions it would have been difficult to get ahead of Norris because Lewis had a problem overtaking Ricciardo even with DRS. Norris managed the race very well, who knows what would have happened if the rain hadn’t come, but it did.

It‘s an extremely difficult decision to make, it started to drizzle halfway through the circuit but we made the decision and it paid off,” said Wolff about the situation on the race track.

Hamilton himself admitted something similar in a post-race interview. “Lando did a great job here, I’m not sure if it would have been possible (to overtake Norris – ed.) if it hadn’t started to rain. That makes the victory all the sweeter,” he added.

Yes, one thing is that Norris managed to get away almost every time and Hamilton didn’t have many opportunities to attack, which leads to the conclusion that under normal conditions, if the McLaren driver hadn’t made any major mistakes, he probably could have won the Russian Grand Prix.

But on the other hand, the twenty-one-year-old Briton has deprived himself of victory. ” I’m obviously disappointed, overwhelmed in a way, but we decided to stay on track and we stand by that decision,” Norris said of the situation.

“I felt I did everything I could, even though it was difficult. I made a few mistakes and still kept Lewis behind me. I was told that the intensity of the rain would be the same, but in the end there was more water than the team expected.

In the end it was bad, but we still did a great job. Except for that one decision, I’m happy with everything,” he added.

“Of course we were very disappointed at that moment, especially Lando. But this is also part of the sport we are involved in. In hindsight, it’s always easy to see what we could have done differently or what he could have done differently.

We just couldn’t handle the situation as a team, not pitting was a bad decision. But again, it’s sport, ” said McLaren boss Andreas Seidl at the end of the race.

F1, McLaren F1 Team, Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1