Lewis Hamilton was happy to split the Red Bull pair in F1 Mexico GP as he and Toto Wolff reflect on the strategy.
It looked like Hamilton may just win in Austin but it wasn’t to be. The same feeling was seen during the F1 Mexico GP race as well, but it just wasn’t to be for the Mercedes driver who is looking out for his first victory of the 2022 season as is the team.
Many argued that the strategy choice made the difference in Mexico where Mercedes were banking on the mediums on Max Verstappen to drop-off which would have helped Hamilton on the hard compound, but that never happened as the Dutchman sealed a win.
Seeing couple others going long on the medium tyres at the start and then switching to soft tyres towards the end, it was that strategy which George Russell wanted but Mercedes put both him and Hamilton on the same medium-hard strategy which didn’t work.
The medium-soft seemed like the strategy to be on but both Hamilton and Wolff felt Red Bull still had the edge over Mercedes in overall capacity. Also, they had to cover Sergio Perez in third who may have leapfrogged them had they not stopped when they did.
Here’s what Lewis Hamilton said:
Splitting the Red Bull cars –
Hamilton: “I’m really happy to be up here and to be able to split the Red Bulls, I think, is a huge result for us. Brought an upgrade into the last race and to have kind-of close the gap a little bit – they still have the edge I think – but I don’t know, I think it was amazing for us to be fighting in qualifying and have the second and third. I was speaking about in strategy about us taking a risk with one of the cars at least doing something different. I had a gut feeling that they will be on the Soft to start with and when everyone took their blankets off, everyone around us was on the Softs and we’re on the Mediums. At that moment. I thought that we may be in trouble. But then again, it’s a long, long race, so I thought maybe they’ll be on a two-stop. But that Medium tyre just had no drop-off. So ultimately, I think they were on the right tyre strategy. But I am grateful I was able to just about keep up within that first stint. That’s huge, to be able to keep up with a Red Bull.
Tyre call –
Hamilton: “I mean, I kept telling them the tyre was fine, but I’m assuming that they were coming into my window. Sergio had already stopped. So I’m assuming they… they were going much quicker than me perhaps. So, if we stayed out longer, I would have come out behind Sergio and it would have been all over. So, I think that’s the reason. Unfortunately, at the beginning, obviously had a good battle through Turns 1 and 2 but obviously my team-mate got jumped by Sergio, so I was basically tag-teamed by the Red Bulls. It’s very, very hard in strategy when you don’t have both cars there. I think Sergio was able to come in and pull me in, which definitely hindered our strategy.
Soft tyre start for Verstappen and if they thought –
Hamilton: “I think at the beginning, tyre difference was the issue. I think the soft tyre naturally is a little bit faster in the early phases. It definitely was surprising to see how consistent he was able to keep it. So in the early phase I’m sure he was managing a little bit, but I could tell that they had the upper hand in that first stint. But then towards the end I started to close up a little bit and I was hopeful of some sort of a bit of a battle but yeah, as soon as we migrated onto that hard tyre, it was kind of over from that point.
“I think ultimately they still have the upper hand. They’re still a little bit quicker. Maybe we were the closest that we’ve ever been and perhaps if we were on the same tyre maybe it was a couple of tenths a lap perhaps. But they’re quite quick in a straight line and not losing through the corners. I was in his tow and I was struggling just to keep up so they’ve definitely got a little bit more in the tank than we do. But we’re getting closer. I think if we had started on the soft, maybe I would have been the same distance behind in that first stint. I don’t really know what else… what different we would do. Perhaps we would have tried the undercut and ultimately that would have been much more enjoyable to try something like that. But, yeah, hindsight is a great thing. I’m just grateful for the progress we have made as a team and the fact that we are now in between the Red Bulls. I think that’s huge.”
Here’s what Toto Wolff said:
Braver on strategy side –
Wolff: “No. In hindsight, it’s always easier to judge. But I think the one stop, medium-hard, looked like the right strategy. That the medium held on for so long at the end came as a surprise. But hindsight is the thing. If we were to restart the race, maybe we would choose a different tyre.”
Different strategy would have helped or Red Bull were quicker –
Wolff: “I don’t think we could have overtaken them because the gaps, that would have been basically the reverse strategy, or even the soft-medium, that would have been a bit of an advantage into Turn 1, Lewis was on the outside, so you never know how it would have come, but we would have been even closer on a different strategy.”
Was best chance to beat –
Wolff: “On the simulations, it says yes. But we see the tendency, we see that we are able to compete. I’m really proud of the team of what we did this weekend. We experimented with a lot of things, the engine guys have pushed the boundaries really to give us the maximum performance also. I think it will be a mix between trying the max while trying the most for next year.”
Here’s Max Verstappen, Christian Horner on Sky F1
Here’s how F1 Mexico GP panned out