Christian Horner: Mercedes caught in “no man’s land” with Lewis Hamilton strategy call in United States GP
Mercedes’ decision to stop Hamilton several laps later than 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen ultimately proved c🧸ostly in the fight f🍒or the victory.
Mercedes were weighing up a possible one-stop strategy when Red Bull and McLaren committed to a two-stop with the🃏ir early stop.
When Hamilton eventually pitt🦂ed, he rejoined over six seconds 🍨behind Verstappen - a gap he struggled to make up.
Reflecting on the various strategies in play, Horner gave his view on Mercedes’ indeciওsion between the two strategy c♚hoices.
"Before the race all our simulations were telling us two stop was the fastes📖t race for us, so that's what we committed to,” Horner said. “The debate was do we run the hard [tyre] in the middle stint or the medium.
“We knew going up against Lando that they'd committed to the two hards, so we knew going 𓃲medium-medium it was crucial for Max to make use of that to get the pass done and get the track 💟position and then run our fastest race to the end of the race.
“I think Mercedes found themselves in💮 no man's land today. They sort of attempted a one [stop], aborted, and then took the better tyre, the medium tyre, fo♐r the final stint.
“But thankfully we had just enough to ho⛦ld the🔯m off.”
Verstappen’s 💜race was also compromised by a recurring brake issue.
“He was managing a brake issue throughout the race,” Horner a𒐪dded.
“You coul🌜d hear, he wasn't ha💧ppy about the brakes, and when you've got that issue you are building in a bit of a margin.
“So I think all his focus was on that and ꧑he knew very well what the gap was and he was managing that.”
With a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the🔜 heartbeat of our unbiased reporting.
