Mercedes has explained the decision-making process behind the choice to attempt an initial one-stop race during last weekend’s Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix.
Mercedes had retained position at the start in seventh and ninth when a red flag was triggered to clear a crash involving Alex Albon and Daniel Ricciardo at Turn 3.
Although its closest rivals opted against changing compounds at the stoppage, Mercedes elected to switch from the Medium to the Hard and eliminate a pit stop.
However, the German marque’s pace in the closing laps of the first stint meant it had to abandon that strategic gamble and revert to a two-stop on the Medium tyre.
Mercedes has revealed that its allocation for the race and the minimal threat from behind prompted George Russell and Lewis Hamilton to trial alternative strategies.
“Principally, we thought that would be a way to be a bit different,” Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin said on the team’s Japan review video.
“The teams in the top 10 that had two Hards , that was us and McLaren.
“Red Bull and Ferrari had two of the Mediums and at that point there wasn’t really enough information to know how that Hard and Medium were going to compare.
“It would certainly be an easier way of achieving a one-stop with two Hards than with a Medium and a Hard and because of that red flag we’d already run the Medium.
“Then looking further down the grid there wasn’t really any threat from the other teams. They were slower than us and not likely to interact, so really it was about offsetting.”
Shovlin has highlighted that the degradation troubles both drivers were experiencing on their ageing rubber exacerbated the time loss out of the slower-speed corners.
The margin created to its competitors during that period meant that George Russell finished seventh, while Lewis Hamilton trailed home ninth in a car nursing damage.
“The issue was that the end of our hard stint wasn’t good enough. We were dropping off,” Shovlin added.
“We lost a fair bit of time in traffic but fundamentally we weren’t quick enough and we’re just trying to understand that now.
“The tyres in Suzuka run quite hot. There’s a bit of overheating and when you get traffic it drops the grip, causes a bit more sliding and specifically we were struggling with the slower corners.
“There’s a hairpin, the slow chicane as well. That was where we were losing a fair chunk of that time.
“It was difficult to get the car turned and it was just costing us a bit in both of those corners.
“And then obviously as the tyres are just getting older the sliding goes up and the temperatures get a bit higher and that was just compounding it.”
While Mercedes’ plan backfired at Suzuka, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was able to execute a one-stop to climb from eighth on the grid to recover to a fourth-place finish.
Shovlin has admitted that Mercedes is hard at work attempting to diagnose the reason behind its comparative lack of speed on a shorter stint compared to Leclerc.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve got a complete understanding of that issue now. It’s obviously very soon after the race,” he continued.
“That’s one of the jobs that we’re going to be getting into in the next few days trying to work out exactly what happened and why did we drop off so much more than for instance Leclerc, who did a very good first stint that was a lot longer.”
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