“That’s what lost the race” - Toto Wolff concedes strategy cost Lewis Hamilton likely win
Hamilton finished just two seconds behind 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Max Verstappen at the Circuit of the Americas, cl🐭osing in rapidly in the final laps.
Mercedes did have track position over Red Bull in tꦉhe first stint butꦜ didn’t react to Verstappen’s undercut at the end of Lap 17.
It seemed that Mercedes were unsure about commi🐟tting to a one-stoဣp or two-stop, ultimately stopping a few laps later.
Hamilton rejoined six seconds behind Verstappen and struggled to 𓄧bridge that gap until the closing phase of th🐎e race when they switched to the mediums.
Speaking to Sky after the race, Wolff said: “No, 🐠the hi🦹ndsight is a tough thing because you can see if we covered Max we had the quicker car at that stage but we didn’t know.
“Dragging out 🍒to a one-stop was a valid thing at that stage but we lost so much time over two laps. That’s what lost the race.”
Explaining Mercedes’ indecision, Wolff added: “We were on Lap 19 or 20 and we needed🐎 to extend it until Lap 23 to make the one-stop stick. He stops, Max stops for a clear two-stop and we knew we just needed four more laps to go with a one-stop. He was 20 seconds behind us and then the tyre just dropped and we lost the gap.”
“Everything went a little bit against us. Tough fig𓆏hting with Ricciardo who came out on thಌe soft, quickest lap and feisty Norris. That is how it goes.
“That la🐠p was two seconds slower than 𓃲the previous one and the one after and then you expect defending, and with Ricciardo it was 1.5s. You know fair doos.”
Regardless, it was a positive weekend for Mercedes, who introduced a signif🌃icant floor upgrade in Austiไn.
“Painful,” Wolff concluded. “The upgrade is workin𒅌g. Super step which was a direction that we were hoping that would actually make it stick more and it doe💯s, and directionally I think a very good sign.”
With a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor isꦺ the heartbeat of our unbiased reporting.
