Not only track position, but Max was also 11 secs in front of Lewis when the safety car came out, yet they took the gamble losing that 11 sec lead and track position too. The only way staying on Mediums would have worked was is if the SC never ended.Īt Zolder, it was RBR now leading and RBR were prepared to (and did) lose track position to put Max on the better soft tyre. Take Masi out of the equation, as no-one knew that was gonna happen, with 6 or 7 laps to go, the SC “generally” does not last that long, so the race, at that point, was pretty certain to restart. In Abu Dhabi, Merc simply didn’t want to lose track position by bringing Lewis in for softs so kept him out on mediums. So he had no chance of a win either way, and I wouldn’t be surprised if his comment about losing the tyres was a white lie to get the pitstop he wanted. George’s decision to take softs was easier because he wasn’t leading, he was just the buffer between Lewis and Max. So if your pre-race plan is to take risks to try and win then of course you stay out. You might not rate your chance of holding on at more than 20% but that’s higher than your chance of passing Max with no tyre advantage. Until you try it you don’t know how hard it will prove to be, and at least you’re forcing your opponent to pass you on track. Pitting both for softs basically guarantees 2nd & 3rd but next to no chance of winning, staying out gives you a chance of a race win if you can defend against new softs with nearly-new mediums. In fact as Lewis only fell to 4th the chances are they would have been 3rd & 4th (with HAM ahead of RUS, behind VER and LEC) had they kept both cars on mediums, so not both off the podium as you claim. It’s always easy to call strategy in hindsight but their mediums were only about 5 laps old so it was far from a foregone conclusion that they would be “sitting ducks” if they stayed out. Thus expect to end up outside the podium with both cars. And they did exactly what we discussed this morning with taking risks to win the race.”Īdvert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-freeĢ) stay on the already somewhat worn medium tyres, get a sniff of a race lead during the caution period, and be a certain sitting duck for any Red Bull and/or Ferrari which changes to Softs during the SC. “So I couldn’t wish for a better crew that takes the decisions in terms of strategy. Things can go wrong and even you have a late Safety Car, accident or whatever. “You’re always exposed when you take decisions and they backfire because you never have a 100% situation in the race. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said the team has “absolutely the best guys” in place on the pit wall and backed their gamble on splitting the strategies between Hamilton and Russell in an attempt to win the race. I was hopeful to get a first or second at least, but let’s move on.”
“Of course, we could always look back, all of us can in certain scenarios and say we could or would have made a different choice. The decision whether to give up the lead of the race and pit “wasn’t an easy call”, said Hamilton.
Hamilton stayed out on the medium compound, but was quickly passed by the pair as well as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Race leader Max Verstappen took the opportunity, dropping behind Hamilton, while George Russell came in on the following lap and did the same. The team’s race hung on a decision during the Safety Car period whether to pit for soft tyres.
I 1,000% believe we’ve got the right team in place.” Some have been here as long as me, and much longer in the team, who continue to be motivated every year. “We’ve got a group of young, super-determined individuals. Hamilton said he believes “100%” Mercedes have “the right team” in place on the pit wall. He apologised to the team for his comments afterwards. A frustrated Hamilton said on his radio the team had “screwed” his race as he dropped out of the podium positions following a late Safety Car restart.
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