Hamilton had questioned over team radio why Ferrari had kept both its drivers out in the VSC periods, which occurred during a pit window at Albert Park, with Mercedes having taken advantage to do so when losing less time.
Both Mercedes and Ferrari drivers were involved in a thrilling early-race battle for the lead in the Australian Grand Prix, as Leclerc changed hands multiple times with George Russell for the lead.
While Russell went on to win the race from Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli, the Ferrari duo finished behind as Leclerc registered a podium.
Hamilton crossed the line six tenths behind his teammate, but with Mercedes a further 15 seconds up the road, the seven-time World Champion thinks his call to pit was ultimately immaterial.
“I don’t have mixed emotions about it, we got a third and fourth,” Hamilton replied when asked about his strategy.
“I think, ultimately, the Mercedes were quicker than us, and that’s probably the positions or the maximum results that we were going to get today.
“I think we can definitely go and look and see whether or not stopping would have been better. I definitely thought when I saw both Mercedes go in, one ahead of me, one behind me, I thought we should have come in. At least one of us should have come in and covered.
“We’ll go and have a look at it and see what we could have done better.”
Leclerc had a lightning start to the race, going from fourth to first at Turn 1, while Hamilton also threatened the lead of the race around the outside.
With Isack Hadjar also looking for a way past the Mercedes, Hamilton ran slightly wide on the exit and lost the place to the Red Bull driver, but quickly moved up to third place after starting in seventh.
Hamilton is taking the positives from how Ferrari performed on Sunday, with the belief that he would have overtaken Leclerc with a bit of extra race distance.
“George, I don’t know if he was defending me, but I ended up being a bit wide through Turn 1, and then lost a bit of ground,” he said of the start.
“But obviously, then I was back in the fight, in the mix, and then I was just learning about the car the whole time through the race as we were fourth, and then towards the end, I had mega pace.
“So, couple more laps, and I would have had Charles. So that’s positive. I know in the next race, I know where we need to pick up and improve on, and I know that we can be fighting for a podium.”
