Singapore Grand Prix, Mercedes admits the mistake
“I fought as hard as I could to start on the medium tires, but the team kept insisting that I should start on the softs.” These are the comments of Lewis Hamilton, expressing his disappointment with Mercedes’ strategy after finishing sixth in the Singapore Grand Prix, despite starting from third on the grid in the race which was held at the Marina Bay street circuit.
The decision to start on soft tires was quite aggressive and was justified by the attempt to gain at least one position at the start. However, Lewis Hamilton remained in third and tried to manage the soft compound as much as possible, but eventually had to pit on lap 17 to switch to hard tires. This was a necessary decision, as the softs were “done” and there were still 45 laps to go, but at the same time, the Pirelli hard tires would struggle with the intense heat at the Marina Bay street circuit.
James Allison’s comments after the Singapore Grand Prix
In short, Mercedes’ strategy for Hamilton fell apart completely. And technical director James Allison didn’t shy away from admitting it: “We shouldn’t have started on the softs, it was a mistake. If we could go back in time, we would do what the others did and choose the mediums. The reasoning was that the soft tire often gives you a good start, giving you a chance to overtake one or two cars in the first few laps. That didn’t happen,” said the Briton.
“Furthermore, we hoped that the downside of the softs wouldn’t be as severe, because if you look at past years in Singapore, the race starts slow, and the pace increases after many laps, leaving the soft tire perfectly able to last until the pit window. Instead, the pace picked up from lap five, and that left Lewis with a car that wasn’t particularly strong. As a result, he had to pit early, and that ruined his race.” – the technical director of Mercedes concluded.
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