Toto Wolff pointed out that Lewis Hamilton was familiar with Mercedes’ strategy at the Monaco Grand Prix, which he then criticized on team radio.
On a self-known “catastrophe day” for the world champions, which also included Valtteri Bottas’ resignation due to a failed pit stop, Hamilton lost the lead in the title race to Monte Carlo winner Max Verstappen.
That was because the Briton only finished seventh and spent the entire race behind Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri.
With overtaking nearly impossible, Mercedes brought Hamilton to an early hard tire pit stop to do the undercut at Gasly.
Since the tires took longer than hoped to reach the optimal temperature, the seven-time world champion not only failed to prevail over Gasly, but also fell behind Sergio Perez and Sebastian Vettel.
On team radio, Hamilton said to his race engineer Pete Bonnington: “How am I behind him, man, come on” after he found Gasly back in front. He later added, “What happened guys, I just lost two sets.
“I don’t understand people. I saved the tires in order to drive longer. You made me stop in front of everyone. “
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Wolff, the co-owner and team boss of Mercedes F1, was quoted by the Dutch edition of the GP fans to Sky Sports that Hamilton was familiar with the plan.
“I think the strategy was very clear,” said the Austrian. “He [Hamilton] asked over the on-board radio: “Are we going for the undercut?”
“From our point of view, this was also the best option to overtake Gasly. His lap was good, the pit stop was good, and his lap was good too.
“Only Gasly apparently had a second and a half ahead. That was not the case in our calculations. “
Monaco on Sunday was an experience for Wolff in complete contrast to the opportunity eight years earlier when his team won their first of five Monte Carlo victories in modern times via Nico Rosberg.
In a conversation with the 2016 world champion on Sky F1 after the race on Sunday, Wolff described how the consequences of the evening would be very different this time – even if he were to expose himself to the pain of the afternoon again.
“I had more fun than we won in 2013 and we celebrated with you until seven in the morning,” said Wolff zu Rosberg. “Someone drank the water from the flowers.
“There won’t be a party this time. I go home, look at the dates, watch the race again and have a pizza. “
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