Hamilton: Mercedes must improve communication

Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes must improve communication between pit wall and driver to avoid losing out as they did at the Australian Grand Prix. Hamilton was left searching for answers from his team as Sebastian Vettel capitalised on a Virtual Safety Car period to win in Melbourne.

Having extended his opening stint, Vettel maintained the lead by pitting when Hamilton was cruising at a pace determined by the VSC.

A bemused Hamilton immediately took to his radio to ask his team why nobody had informed him Vettel could have taken the lead - it later transpired that the Silver Arrows team were looking at data skewed by a "software bug" and they believed Hamilton was well-placed to regain the lead.

Hamilton was told: "We thought we were safe, but there's obviously something wrong." The champion then told his team "I'm going for it!" as they struggled to offer him a full explanation.

"Communication is something we are obviously going to try and work on," Hamilton said.

"I was like 'Can I fight? can I go?' and they were taking their time so I was like 'I am going for it' and I gave everything in that moment."

Hamilton pulled up the back of Vettel, but was unable to find a way past the Ferrari, locking up his wheels at the moment he got the closest into turn one.

"I was quite close behind in his tow, just nipped the right front and didn't make the corner," Hamilton explained.

"After that I was catching him again but in trying to catch up temperatures again were on the limit so constantly being pushed and pulled.

"I was able to manoeuvre the car and get relatively close. It was like [holding together matching poles of] a magnet, you can't get the magnet past a certain region. That's how it was. I was able to follow a lot closer than I remember in the past, but I couldn't get any closer than that."

Though determined to get his place back, Hamilton ultimately had to accept defeat, saying that his charge was curtailed due to thoughts of 2018's three-engine limit imposed on teams.

"I was like 'I've got to keep going' so I was nervous of damaging the engine at the same time. I cooled it down and it started coming back, I got relatively close," he said.

"I just thought, I couldn't get him in those other laps, my tyres are going to be worse now, I am driving at 110 per cent and I am risking everything just for that seven points so I probably should just sit back, save my engine and use the life of it for the next ones.

"That goes against my spirit of racing because I want to race right down to the last line. I am fit enough, I felt good but the way the sport is set up with fuel saving and all these different things, three engines, you have to think about them and back off.

"So it's probably not exciting for the fans to have seen because they probably wanted to see it to the end but I want to finish my season on these three engines, I don't want to have to have a fourth."