Mercedes has revealed how a faster-than-expected pace in Formula 1‘s Singapore Grand Prix contributed to its choice to put Lewis Hamilton on Soft tyres backfiring.
Hamilton headed a Mercedes second-row lock-out at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, but he was incensed as a strategic mistake saw him drop three positions to sixth.
The Briton’s race unfolded when he was the sole driver inside the top 10 to be placed on the red-walled compound and the earlier pit stop left him exposed at the end.
Hamilton divulged earlier this week that Mercedes overruled his desperate pleas to avoid splitting strategies with team-mate George Russell, who trailed home fourth.
Mercedes Technical Director James Allison has echoed boss Toto Wolff’s admission that the team cost Hamilton a stronger race result with a compromised strategy.
READ MORE: Mercedes admit to F1 strategy blunder with Lewis Hamilton in Singapore GP
“We shouldn’t have started on the Softs, that was a mistake,” Allison said in a video that Mercedes released.
“If we could turn back time, we would do what those around us did and select the Mediums.”
Allison has disclosed that Mercedes thought that Hamilton would be able to utilise the added grip that the Softs provide at the start to have a run on Max Verstappen.
But the seven-time F1 champion remained in third on the opening lap and the blistering pace that Lando Norris was setting in the lead applied more strain to his tyres.
With the times at the sharp end being less processional than usual in Singapore, Allison has acknowledged that Mercedes was caught out as Hamilton paid the price.
“The reasoning was that the Soft often allows you to get away from the start abruptly and allows you a good chance of jumping a place or two in the opening laps of the race,” he added.
“We had no real expectation before the race that we were going to suffer the sorts of difficulties that we then experienced on the Soft rubber.
“We imagined we would get the upside of the Soft rubber of getting a place or two. We didn’t, because that just isn’t the way the starts played out.
“Then we hoped that the downside of the Soft being a bit more fragile wouldn’t really play out particularly badly because if you look back over the years in Singapore, on the whole, the pace starts very, very easy at the Singapore race and the drivers then build up the pace over many, many laps, leaving a soft tyre perfectly okay to run relatively deep into the pit window.
“So we didn’t get the places at the start, the pace started to build up from around about lap five. And that left Lewis with a car that was not particularly happy anyway, suffering from quite poor tyre degradation and needing to come in early as a consequence and really ruined his race for him. So just a clear mistake.”
Mercedes contemplated second pit stop
Hamilton at least had the chance to switch to the Medium compound later in the race, as Mercedes did with both cars 12 months ago when it almost stole a race win.
Allison has expressed that Mercedes did consider pitting Hamilton a second time but opted against that call once it transpired that it would not inspire a better result.
“It was certainly there as a great weapon,” he accepted.
“Had there been a Safety Car at an opportune moment in the race, that would have would have been one of the upsides of that strategy.
“But once embarked upon the Soft-Hard strategy, we were considering changing to a two-stop for Lewis at various points during the race.
“But although that would have put him out on fresher rubber and he would have been swift on that fresher rubber.
“All our calculations suggested that he would not actually have gained back the pit stop loss.
“So it was there in the hutch, we could have used it, would have been good at a Safety Car.
“But in a normal, uninterrupted race, which for the first time in forever we got in Singapore, that tyre was not a thing that would have helped Lewis this weekend.”
