Mercedes F1 technical director Mike Elliott spoke about the strategic management of his team in the race at the Miami Grand Prix. George Russell started on hard tires after a disappointing qualifying, and he was able to take advantage of a virtual safety car at the end of the race.
“The VSC came first, and we got George in, which was the right thing to do” explained Elliott. “We were in that position then where we would have had quite a big gap between Valtteri [Bottas]closely followed by Lewis [Hamilton]with George a bit behind.”
“At this point in the race, with Valtteri and Lewis on hard tyres, Lewis was closing in on Valtteri and going to have a chance to overtake on the track for a normal overtake, and that’s what we expected from the race.”
“But that virtual safety car very quickly turned into a full safety car, and at that point it was going to close all the gaps, tighten the pack, and we were going to find ourselves in a position where George was in tires fresh mids, against the worn hards of Lewis and Valtteri.”
Russell had asked himself to extend his stint on hard tyres, which paid off, while in the other Mercedes, Hamilton was unhappy with the strategy, which condemned him to being overtaken by his teammate.
“The safety car came at the worst time for Lewis. If we didn’t pit him, he would have had George behind him on a much newer tyre.”
“If we had done that he would have lost his position on the track to George, he would have been behind George on the track. Although Lewis would have had new tyres, the only new tires we had available to us were the hard or the soft.”
“And while you might think the soft would have been a good fit, we knew he would overheat very quickly. We knew he would overheat even faster because he was right behind George battling on the track. , and that would have put even more heat in the tires.”