F1: 'Mercedes screwed the pooch' once again

Mercedes, the team that cost Lewis Hamilton an 8th world championship after they made the wrong call to not pit Lewis Hamilton for fresh tires in Abu Dhabi last year when Nicholas Latifi crashed (As we proved in this article), made another error in Mexico City last weekend that may have cost Lewis Hamilton a race win….and once again Nicholas Latifi was indirectly involved.

Toto Wolff looks depressed as Max Verstappen schools his driver Lewis Hamilton yet again. Wolff knows it’s Max Verstappen’s talent, not the Red Bull car because if the Red Bull car was fastest they would finish 1-2 every race. When is Wolff going to own up to the fact that it was he that cost Hamilton the win in Abu Dhabi last year and not Michael Masi?

Mercedes strategy director James Vowles has revealed data from Williams driver Nicholas Latifi influenced the decision to pit Lewis Hamilton for hard tires at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Hamilton looked to be in contention for victory after starting on the alternate medium tires and kept pace with soft-tire running Max Verstappen in the opening stint.

But much to everyone’s surprise, Hamilton swapped mediums for hards just four laps later than Verstappen changed from the softs to mediums, which left the Briton struggling for pace compared to the Red Bull driver.

Addressing the strategy decisions in Mexico, Vowles explained: “With Lewis, he was in a position where [Sergio] Perez had stopped and we only had a lap to cover him really, a lap or two.

“We had two choices, let Perez undercut us but go long and then fit the soft tires, or stop and given the length of the stint, the hard really would be the only tire that would have made it. The soft would not have made that level of stint.

“We decided that track position was more important at that stage and furthermore, we had data from Latifi who had already stopped and the hard wasn’t terrible.

“So we opted to stop, put Lewis onto the hard tire and go towards the end of the race under the hope Verstappen was going to drop off the medium curve, much as we started to see degradation at the end of our stint.”

Jacques Villeneuve has criticized Mercedes for paying more attention to their “computers” than the action in Mexico as they should have seen that the soft tires were up to the job.

Writing in his formule1.nl column, the 1997 World Champion questioned Mercedes’ strategy saying while it made the race “interesting, perhaps they should have watched more television.”

He explained: “In the first half of the race it was clear the soft tire survived despite full tanks and a green track.

“It has been the case for fifty years that as the race progresses you get lighter and the track gets more grip. So I was surprised by the choice for the hard tire.

“Lewis Hamilton still had speed, so why not? But for George Russell the frustration was great.

“He asked several times to continue and then go for the soft tire. He had nothing to lose anyway.

“Everyone could see what Ricciardo was doing on the mediums, that was clearly the right compound.”

He added: “Maybe the Mercedes team should just watch television instead of all their computers.”

This season it’s a very different story with Red Bull coming to the fore in the new ground-effect aerodynamic era.

“For years Mercedes had the best car, and they’ve never really been cornered,” he said.

“They were defensive on Sunday, whereas Red Bull were aggressive and went on the attack.

“When you defend, your choices are never decisive and you only win when the other makes mistakes.”