Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said Saturday that the team would be ready to take risks with Hamilton’s strategy after only qualifying in seventh place.
Hamilton finished sixth in the first stint after Charles Leclerc failed to start and was pitted at the end of lap 29 to switch to the hard compound tire.
The move was aimed at giving Hamilton the undercut against Pierre Gasly, but AlphaTauri kept his driver ahead by bringing him a lap later, which frustrated Hamilton on team radio.
It got worse and worse for Hamilton as Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Perez both scored the overlap and the seven-time world champion again fell back in seventh place.
Explaining the rationale behind Mercedes’ post-race strategy, Wolff said the team believed the undercut was the best way to get one step ahead of Gasly.
“I think the undercut was the only chance we had,” said Wolff when asked about the strategy call by Motorsport.com.
“We saw the tire come off and there was nothing left, similar to Valtteri’s [Bottas]’Scar.
“There was some communication between him and the strategists, we’re undercut, and we felt the undercut had a lot more potential for gasly jumping. And it wasn’t enough.”
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Hearing his frustration over the radio at losing seats to Vettel and Perez, Hamilton asked why he had saved tires on his first stint before arriving early.
He spent most of the remaining laps behind Gasly but later said it was “pointless to stay on his bum for no reason” which resulted in a late stop to get fresh tires and set the fastest lap.
Mercedes technical director James Allison said he could “understand why he is unhappy” but said the team was concerned that Hamilton would get stuck behind Gasly for too long.
“It’s always a balanced call, and today we picked the wrong one of those two options,” Allison said.
“Lewis had a few more rubbers left on the tire for a decent couple of decent laps. But chances are Gasly wouldn’t have stopped anytime soon. And we feared Gasly would just stay out.” Roadblock forever.
“Either way, we didn’t have any good options. We had to make the undercut stick to prevent the world from falling on its head like it is today.
“Unfortunately, with the choice of undercut and the fact that it didn’t work, the world fell on our heads when Vettel and Perez lost places.”
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