‘I was happy with wish it was more
Hamilton left in disbelief
Ferrari was coming out ahead. I didn’t even know that Seb had pitted.
“It was disbelief from that moment until the end of the race.”
The British driver was controlling the race with Vettel in third behind team-mate Kimi Raikkonen until Romain Grosjean’s Haas car stopped and the virtual safety car was used.
Vettel took advantage of the slow pace to pit but Mercedes thought they had a few seconds in hand under the safety car, which restricts the speed of cars on the track.
But they were left stunned as the German emerged just ahead of Hamilton, who had pitted earlier to cover Raikkonen, and went on to win by five seconds.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff admitted: “Our computer said 15 seconds was the necessary time in order for Seb to jump us.
“We had 12 so we thought we had about a three-second margin, which should have been enough.
“But then we saw the TV pictures of Seb coming out and it wasn’t enough so we were wrong. We need to ask the computers why.”
The next grand prix takes place in Bahrain in a fortnight. LEWIS HAMILTON was left to rue the NASA-style nature of modern-day Formula One as he missed out on certain victory in Australia.
Had he just relied on his finely-tuned racer’s instincts rather than defer to what the Mercedes boffins were calculating on the pitwall, then it would have been a stroll in Albert Park.
Instead, it was the computers which won out and rather than launching his campaign for a fifth drivers’ crown with a crushing victory, it was his Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel who had the last laugh. Just 24 hours after blitzing the lap record and taunting the German over his claims of a ‘party-mode’ power-boost button, the post-race champagne left a sour taste in the mouth of the defending champion.
“It is such a team effort but then you are relying on computers, on data and so much technology to come out with the right strategy,” said the 33-year-old.
“I wish it was more in my hands because I feel like I drove as good as ever. I was really happy with how I was driving. But I will take that on to the next race and I will try to grow from it.
“I had extra tools so I could have been further ahead by the first pit stop and could have been further ahead after it. There were so many good things we could have done.
“But if one thing is telling you something and you think you are doing it to the book and to the limit, then there is nothing you can do.”
Hamilton was in complete control after powering away from pole, but instead of pushing ahead he opted to control the gap rather than risk an engine blowing so early in the season.
But it all started to go wrong when the Haas car of Romain Grosjean stopped on the track with race officials imposing a virtual safety car to answer Vettel’s prayers.
Grosjean’s team-mate Kevin Magnussen had stopped a couple of laps earlier after being released from the pits despite a wheel-nut issue. It led to recriminations among the mechanics and a £10,000 fine for the team.
The virtual safety car restricts the pace of cars on the track and makes it more advantageous to make a pit stop. Hamilton had already come in to cover Kimi Raikkonen in the other Ferrari, but Vettel, in third, had not.
The Mercedes race computers were telling the team that Hamilton could afford to be 15 seconds adrift and still regain the lead. In fact, he was only around 12 seconds behind when Vettel stopped, but the numbers proved wrong and to his horror the Ferrari emerged just ahead.
He added: “In my mind I was racing Sebastian but the Ferraris have got two jacks, so they pit one guy, which forces you to protect yourself from the undercut. But I was