Mercedes believes they had to pit Lewis Hamilton earlier than before for him to finish higher than fifth in the Turkish Grand Prix.
Hamilton even finished third at one point in the race after choosing not to install a new set of intermediate tires at the same time as Max Verstappen and his other rivals. The team called him over at one point, but he decided to stay outside.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said the team would have to decide whether to enter at this point or risk a run until the end of the race without a pit stop. They opted for the latter but abandoned the strategy after worrying about how much time Hamilton was losing against the cars behind him.
“In the car it is always very difficult to assess your own position in the race,” said Wolff. “I think we could have either played very conservatively and pitted him when Verstappen, then Perez, pitted and then fighting on the track, probably coming out behind Perez and fighting for P4, P3 on the track. “
“The other thing was to try and drive for a long time and either think about whether it would turn to dry tires or just not stop. So there were two possible options that sounded pretty good. “
Hamilton’s tires began to fade, however, putting him at risk of losing a place to Pierre Gasly if he pits, causing Mercedes to overtake him with eight laps to go.
“Unfortunately, the pace decreased much faster than we would have needed to stay third or even fourth or even fifth,” said Wolff. “We almost lost the window on Gasly and then we decided, okay, this isn’t going to happen and let’s dig it out and consolidate it.”
“In retrospect, I would have pitted ten laps earlier and would have fought on the track, probably would have finished third or fourth. There was much more to be gained from the other, more dynamic variant. “
While Mercedes won the race with Valtteri Bottas, Hamilton was fifth. Wolff said this was the best one would have expected from eleventh on the grid in a dry race, but the wet conditions made a better result possible.
“I think that in a normal dry race that would probably have been the best case of finishing fifth. And today, the best case scenario with any decision, in retrospect on the bottom line or with the information we end up with, would probably be the third thing we could have achieved. So it’s a five point swing.
“But I think we have to get out of here and say that was damage control for this weekend. And Valtteri, thank God Valtteri was there and won the race and got an extra point for the fastest lap. “
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2021 Turkish Grand Prix
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