Mercedes justify F1 Japanese GP strategy after Lewis Hamilton radio query
Mercedes explain the tyre strategies after a bad day for Lewis H🐠amiltoꦜn and George Russell
Mercedes 𝄹h🐬ave justified their strategy call at the F1 Japanese Grand Prix.
The tyre strategy failed to pay off, with 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton finishing ninth and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell seventh.
The first-lap crash for Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon presented an opportunity for every team to find an advantage with the st🔯rategy at Suzuka.
Mercedes switched their drivers to hard compounds after the restart𝕴 which resulted in Hamilton asking🅘 to “change the strategy” via team radio.
Hamilton’s lack of pace even saw him allow teammate Russell to pass hi🌄m.
Mercedes changed their drivers to 🃏another set of 𝓡hards, then switched to mediums at the end.
A Mercedes spokesman explained their decision-making afterwards: “With our tyre allocation (2🍸 Hard, 1 Med⭕ium), we were able to give ourselves the possibility of looking at either a one or a two stop after the red flag.
“Hence the Hard tyre restart.
“Ultimately, as the race progressed, the tyre degradation showed that the tไwo-stop was going 🌠to be the quickest way to the flag.
“Our second and third stints show🌌ed sol𝔉id pace compared to those around us, including the McLarens and the Ferraris.
“We knew that Suzuka would not be our strongest track though and, with time lost being overtaken on the offset strategy (🐽one of the downsides of this strategy), we couldn’t make it back to P6 which was likely the maximum today.”
Ferrari, notably, had greater success by com𝔍mitting early to a two-sওtop strategy.
Carlos Sainz finished 𝄹th✤ird, and Charles Leclerc fourth.
Red Bull securedꦿ a 1-2 fin𝓰ish (their third in four grands prix this year) with Max Verstappen beating Sergio Perez.
🦄Verstappen told Sainz ꦯafterwards in the cooldown room that committing to a two-stop strategy was optimal for Red Bull.
Mercedes, however, were left scratching their ෴heads afte🍬r a disappointing display in Japan.
James was a sports jouꦦrnalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from America💯n sports, to football, to F1.
