Mercedes told that tyre strategy is the least of their worrying troubles
“Failed. Too optimistic," was tౠhe verdict on Mercꦚedes' strategy but they have a bigger problem to fix...
Mercedes’ strategy at Suzuka came under scrutiny but they have been reminded that they must face e🍃ven bigger pr🏅oblems.
Mercedes’ decision to equip Lewis Hamilton🍃 and George Russell with hard tyres at the restart after a red flag at the F1 Japanese Grand Prix failed to yield results.
Hamilton finished ninth, Russell seventhജ, behind a Red Bull 1-2 and both Ferraris among others.
Red Bull and Fe🃏rrari opted for a differe♛nt strategy to Mercedes.
Hamilton questioned the strategy via team rad𒀰io during the race before later insisting his team could💝n’t have done anything differently.
But Mar🌜k Webber has reminded them that tyre strategy is the least of their concerns.
“They rolled the dice,” Webber said to Channel 4✤ after the Japanese Grand Prix🌠.
“They restarted on the hards. They were lo𝓀oking at making a one-stop work.
“Failed. Too optimistic.
“Then, track position. They had to come back thro𝓀ugh.
“T꧂hen both of them put the mediums on, at the end. So they converted to a [two-stop] t💫here.
“They🅰 tried, and they went all-in with both cars too, off the line with that hard tyre.
“They haven’t got t🅘he speed at the moment. They just haven’t got the speed.
“You can do🍸 whatever strategy you want. But if you haven’t got a quick car? Good luck.”
The W15 gave Hamilton a rare good feeling at the start o🔯f the weekend in Japan yet൲ Mercedes are still no closer to significantly challenging the Red Bulls.
Hamilton insisted he wouldn’꧑t have fought g𝔍ained anything with an alternate tyre strategy.
“Nothing, I 🍒don’t think,” he said. “I don’t know what the different strategy would have been.
“Whether it🔜 was the mediums to start with? But we still had two terrible hard tyres to run through. It was a real challenge.”
Red Bull’s 🉐Christian Horner insisted that ♍tyre strategy was not crucial in Japan.
“I don’t think there was much in it,” he said.
“The track was warmer today, that brought the🌟 cars i🎀nto a different operating window.
“The circuit ju🦩st gets faster and faster throᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚughout the race.”
James was a 🍎sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
