Ecclestone: "Dennis gave the title to Raikkonen"

According to Bernie Ecclestone, much of the blame for Lewis Hamilton's failure to win the world title lies with the owner of McLaren Mercedes, Ron Dennis. In particular, the F1 boss criticized the strategy adopted for the Englishman and which in his opinion would have contributed significantly to Kimi Raikkonen's victory.

"Ron gave the title to Raikkonen with an absurd strategy. After the gearbox problem, with the change in strategy, going from two to three stops, he gained nothing and actually lost another 25 seconds due to the additional stop. With the strategy at two stops he would have only lost those 15 seconds and would have been fourth. Now Raikkonen is champion, let's just hope he starts talking more."

According to Dennis, however, the change in strategy made the Englishman gain between 10 and 15 seconds. However, Niki Lauda said he agreed with Ecclestone: "A two-stop strategy would have taken him to fifth place. You have to look at the times and there are 20 seconds left."