Safety Car, Sepang International Circuit, 2015

How Mercedes’ Safety Car strategy backfired

2015 Malaysian Grand Prix lap charts

Posted on

| Written by

Mercedes’ executive director Paddy Lowe acknowledged their decision to pit during the Safety Car period cost them time they were unable to make up.

Malaysian Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Use the controls below to show/hide different drivers:

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/charts/2015drivercolours.csv

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56
Lewis Hamilton 1 1 1 1 2 6 6 5 5 5 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Sebastian Vettel 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Nico Rosberg 3 3 3 3 3 9 9 9 8 7 7 7 5 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Daniel Ricciardo 4 4 4 4 4 7 7 6 6 6 6 6 7 7 8 6 6 7 9 15 15 12 10 11 11 11 11 10 9 9 9 9 9 8 9 12 10 10 10 10 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 10 10 10 10
Daniil Kvyat 5 6 6 6 6 10 11 11 10 10 11 11 11 11 10 9 8 8 7 7 6 7 12 12 12 12 13 12 12 11 10 10 10 9 8 8 8 8 8 8 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 9 9 9 9
Max Verstappen 6 9 10 10 10 12 10 10 9 9 9 10 10 10 9 7 7 6 6 6 7 13 11 10 9 9 8 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 7 6 7 7 7 6 7 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
Felipe Massa 7 5 5 5 5 8 8 7 7 8 8 8 8 8 6 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 8 7 6 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 7 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6
Valtteri Bottas 8 14 12 12 11 13 12 12 11 11 10 9 9 9 7 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 5 9 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 6 5 5 5 5 4 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 5 5
Marcus Ericsson 9 8 8 8
Romain Grosjean 10 10 9 9 8 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 10 17 15 14 12 12 8 7 7 7 6 5 13 13 13 14 14 13 12 13 15 13 13 13 13 13 13 12 12 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11
Kimi Raikkonen 11 12 18 18 17 17 16 15 15 15 14 13 13 12 12 17 14 12 11 9 8 6 6 6 6 4 4 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 7 6 6 6 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
Pastor Maldonado 12 19 19 19 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 17 17 17 17 15 13 16 16 18 17 17 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 15 14 14 16 16 15 15 15 15 14 14 14 14 13 12 12 14
Nico Hulkenberg 13 7 7 7 7 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 8 16 17 15 14 14 11 9 9 10 10 10 9 10 10 11 13 15 15 14 13 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 12 15 15 15 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14
Sergio Perez 14 16 13 13 12 5 5 8 12 12 12 12 12 13 14 12 11 13 17 16 16 15 13 13 13 13 12 11 11 12 12 11 11 10 10 10 16 16 16 16 15 15 15 15 14 13 13 12 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13
Carlos Sainz Jnr 15 11 11 11 9 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 6 6 11 16 15 14 13 11 10 9 8 8 8 7 6 5 5 6 8 8 8 13 12 9 9 9 9 9 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
Felipe Nasr 16 13 17 17 16 16 17 17 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 14 12 11 12 13 13 16 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 15 16 16 16 15 14 12 12 12 12 12 12 13 13 15 14 14 13 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12
Jenson Button 17 17 15 15 15 15 14 14 14 14 15 15 15 15 15 13 10 10 10 10 11 10 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 13 12 12 11 11 11 14 14 14 14 16 16
Fernando Alonso 18 15 14 14 13 14 13 13 13 13 13 14 14 14 13 11 9 9 8 8 9 14
Roberto Merhi 19 18 16 16 14 11 15 16 17 17 17 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 17 18 18 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 16 16 16 16 16 16 15 15 15 15 15 15

Safety Car, Sepang International Circuit, 2015Lewis Hamilton’s chance to win the Malaysian Grand Prix began to slip away from him when Marcus Ericsson spun his Sauber into a gravel trap, bringing the Safety Car out. Mercedes had decided before the race they would pit under these circumstances, but when they did Hamilton was surprised to see Sebastian Vettel and others staying out.

That meant when the race restarted on lap six Vettel had an immediate advantage over Hamilton. By the time Hamilton had passed Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz Jnr, Romain Grosjean and Nico Hulkenberg, Vettel’s lead was ten seconds.

The gap was the same on the penultimate lap of the race before Vettel backed off to take the chequered flag. That being so, it’s not hard to see why the wisdom of Mercedes’ strategy has been questioned.

“The time we lost in traffic in the first laps after the Safety Car, left us with a gap to Sebastian that proved too much of a challenge for us to recover,” executive director for technical Paddy Lowe accepted after the race, “especially considering that we did not have an underlying pace advantage to Ferrari, who were very competitive this weekend”.

Nico Rosberg lost out even more, partly because he was queued behind Hamilton in the pits. “I expected to have to wait behind Lewis but it was letting some other cars by that cost the places,” he said, “especially waiting for the Red Bull queue to move”.

It took Rosberg until lap 14 to emerge in third place behind Vettel and Hamilton, by which time the Ferrari was 18 seconds up the road. However while Hamilton gained little more than a second on Vettel by the end of the race, Rosberg made up almost six seconds.

Malaysian Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap. Use the controls below to show/hide different drivers:

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/charts/2015drivercolours.csv

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56
Lewis Hamilton 0 0 0 0.857 13.448 3.632 5.88 7.663 9.413 9.995 9.902 10.044 9.715 9.228 9.013 8.791 4.102 0 0 0 0 0 0 4.633 24.221 23.18 22.186 20.826 20.262 19.117 18.095 16.807 15.652 14.718 14.489 14.066 9.887 0 14.572 13.721 14.197 13.957 13.61 12.598 11.498 11.711 11.241 11.176 10.911 10.276 10.07 10.106 9.92 9.757 10.094 8.569
Sebastian Vettel 0.705 1.03 0.829 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 12.712 10.136 8.271 7.123 5.055 2.54 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4.933 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Nico Rosberg 1.643 2.318 2.336 4.613 21.081 5.602 8.426 9.651 10.849 12.505 14.765 17.048 18.452 18.284 17.831 17.143 12.206 8.094 7.445 7.252 7.508 7.793 7.59 7.657 10.363 16.63 35.433 34.752 33.784 32.879 31.792 30.271 29.293 28.476 27.211 25.945 20.707 7.062 3.615 4.844 9.594 26.945 25.193 23.517 22.491 22.433 21.66 20.401 18.988 17.589 17.793 17.003 16.386 15.653 15.046 12.31
Daniel Ricciardo 3.197 4.108 4.897 6.572 18.808 4.611 6.821 8.498 10.232 12.038 14.333 17.866 20.759 24.462 27.379 29.441 28.825 32.548 52.868 52.369 52.278 52.138 52.618 53.592 57.096 62.326 64.865 66.329 68.404 70.675 72.486 74.076 76.406 82.182 102.572 102.18 97.893 84.041 80.821 82.188 84.296 85.918 87.534 88.85 90.36 92.548 94.641 97.122 98.539 99.801 101.443 106.952 109.736 112.154 118.698
Daniil Kvyat 5.1 7.091 8.171 11.201 25.536 6.769 9.27 11.771 13.675 16.378 18.207 20.296 22.406 25.812 28.661 30.747 29.136 26.907 28.942 31.792 37.148 56.491 54.74 53.872 57.356 66.03 67.337 69.732 72.654 73.885 75.559 76.874 78.083 79.524 80.86 82.221 79.556 67.727 70.199 92.506 92.931 94.076 94.872 95.458 95.873 96.982 98.564 99.645 100.329 101.147 102.129 105.709 107.283 108.766 110.77
Max Verstappen 7.476 10.255 12.444 16.228 29.001 6.653 8.887 11.188 12.648 14.067 16.493 19.799 21.989 25.071 27.849 29.948 28.135 25.756 27.285 32.897 52.732 52.434 51.729 50.674 52.214 53.154 53.846 54.565 56.144 56.918 57.764 58.665 59.471 63.144 64.458 65.927 63.688 52.412 51.304 61.444 81.78 82.669 83.926 85.1 86.007 87.079 88.063 89.72 91.146 91.933 93.151 94.397 95.884 97.007 99.085 97.762
Felipe Massa 4.446 6.088 7.25 9.717 19.989 5.349 7.878 9.042 10.967 13.181 15.334 18.403 20.981 23.341 25.561 25.955 21.993 18.835 19.502 20.411 21.671 22.776 23.356 28.491 49.3 50.186 51.204 52.546 53.243 53.937 54.186 54.402 54.773 55.403 55.241 54.954 50.803 40.542 58.355 58.333 58.706 59.512 60.22 60.508 60.846 61.669 62.77 63.742 64.459 64.798 65.946 67.247 68.288 69.607 73.486 73.586
Valtteri Bottas 9.624 13.4 13.788 17.643 29.116 7.375 9.528 13.262 14.002 14.417 15.966 19.041 21.447 24.396 26.325 27.282 23.554 20.534 21.548 22.763 23.701 24.988 25.794 27.495 36.539 56.441 56.349 56.364 56.72 58.76 59.032 59.369 59.908 61.432 60.891 60.43 55.845 41.956 38.317 43.652 63.114 63.512 63.797 63.795 63.954 64.692 65.12 65.68 66.061 66.354 66.974 67.688 68.792 69.88 71.683 70.409
Marcus Ericsson 6.749 9.059 10.823
Romain Grosjean 7.839 10.197 11.536 12.537 2.122 1.755 4.436 6.513 8.303 10.977 13.805 16.088 19.387 22.736 30.912 50.491 46.277 41.821 41.258 41.875 41.732 40.82 40.167 39.709 41.25 46.803 67.843 69.791 73.958 83.864 85.8 87.09 88.791 95.342 116.113 115.162 110.35 96.556 93.951 96.273 98.347 101.297 103.818 106.424 108.88 111.745 114.26 117.498 119.557 122.682 125.622 128.114 130.53 133.445 136.379
Kimi Raikkonen 9.267 55.704 92.661 98.095 58.515 19.914 20.411 20.96 21.192 21.942 23.109 25.399 25.697 30.587 48.411 47.421 41.746 36.738 35.233 34.756 33.676 32.41 30.618 29.247 31.6 32.673 33.672 34.697 37.105 38.377 39.688 40.804 42.2 47.668 65.862 65.243 60.042 45.265 40.993 41.105 41.587 42.714 43.552 44.443 45.169 46.553 47.948 49.289 50.285 50.778 51.618 52.49 53.355 54.069 55.001 53.822
Pastor Maldonado 53.436 86.568 98.191 106.766 81.124 32.795 33.903 35.062 36.485 37.967 39.727 41.214 42.243 43.769 45.655 47.339 46.907 49.056 80.237 79.891 79.715 79.08 77.946 76.994 78.615 80.297 81.978 83.368 85.83 88.34 90.963 93.505 99.919 120.688 121.033 121.26 118.612 104.473 101.361 104.851 106.641 109.175 110.824 112.157 114.673 119.812 138.608
Nico Hulkenberg 6.303 8.593 10.45 11.928 0.559 1.262 3.736 5.882 7.796 10.034 12.96 15.621 18.335 22.022 28.426 50.479 48.267 46.122 47.385 48.725 50.295 51.327 51.499 53.144 56.824 61.808 64.732 69.004 72.582 78.202 85.365 106.967 108.045 109.597 110.06 110.722 107.229 94.711 92.333 95.1 97.453 100.378 103.659 111.68 143.008 144.182 145.557 146.681 147.545 148.683 150.051 150.814 151.832 153.644 156.533
Sergio Perez 10.65 14.614 16.99 19.608 8.598 2.704 8.214 13.897 17.044 19.99 22.468 25.293 28.534 31.896 35.084 39.057 43.589 59.877 59.274 59.34 59.349 59.64 59.401 59.28 61.641 64.177 66.853 69.469 73.764 79.142 82.246 84.459 86.799 89.468 96.053 126.82 122.374 110.659 110.111 112.744 114.753 117.981 120.678 122.992 126.59 130.326 133.515 137.216 139.938 142.808 145.368 147.972 150.478 153.24 156.078
Carlos Sainz Jnr 8.771 10.9 12.723 13.873 3.694 2.176 5.02 7.222 9.059 11.502 14.283 17.309 20.188 27.877 47.76 47.811 44.081 40.056 40.308 41.464 43.462 43.493 43.28 43.305 45.667 48.08 50.147 52.122 55.974 59.248 62.078 68.558 89.867 91.004 92.88 93.087 88.803 75.373 72.509 74.354 75.963 78.083 80.113 81.743 83.462 85.555 87.614 91.736 93.681 95.727 97.699 100.449 103.666 107.216 109.743
Felipe Nasr 9.369 18.955 51.808 60.752 51.034 20.143 22.876 25.311 26.318 27.322 28.749 30.799 32.346 34.345 37.15 39.707 39.173 37.117 42.185 48.713 68.859 67.606 66.512 65.904 67.927 70.384 72.316 74.127 76.947 84.476 106.811 107.522 108.326 110.039 110.92 112.115 109.247 96.115 93.433 95.688 97.931 101.551 110.788 130.781 130.458 131.639 133.729 134.98 135.552 136.421 137.129 137.427 137.339 137.935 138.886
Jenson Button 11.266 15.659 19.132 32.012 49.409 14.042 16.326 18.491 20.741 23.658 26.19 28.784 30.977 33.347 36.365 38.973 37.481 36.108 39.198 41.546 49.3 69.839 69.428 69.197 71.602 74.065 75.684 77.612 79.735 81.786 83.98 85.764 87.738 90 96.503 117.761 114.204 101.051 98.735 114.236 173.494
Fernando Alonso 10.331 15.201 18.455 26.103 35.64 8.772 11.307 14.401 17.33 21.046 23.389 26.383 28.952 31.826 34.627 36.677 34.09 31.812 33.372 35.217 58.067
Roberto Merhi 12.647 18.895 24.134 31.803 27.382 14.219 20.848 25.993 30.67 35.702 40.375 45.502 50.287 55.277 60.624 65.465 66.977 69.516 76.008 83.075 90.865 103.115 127.931 130.093 136.298 144.72 149.833 154.591 163.2 170.566 175.667 180.869 190.137 196.115 202.688 209.87 211.767 211.354 221.278 231.16 241.126 255.551 286.508 291.32 299.854 308.549 315.641 321.195 327.953 334.476 342.85 350.542 355.741

2015 Malaysian Grand Prix

Browse all 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix articles

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

37 comments on “How Mercedes’ Safety Car strategy backfired”

  1. Mercedes assumed too much. I think they assumed all the leaders would head for the pits. I think they assumed their cars had enough of an advantage speed wise to make up any deficit. I think they assumed in qualifying they would not need the additional option tires later, like during the race. I think they assumed that Ferrari was better on tires, but still could not beat them. I think they assumed there was no way that Ferrari could match their pace in a race so soon. You know what they say about *assume*.

    No team can stay on top indefinitely.

    1. Mercedes could and should have won, though. If you think a rival is nearly equal but you have the advantage, as Mercedes had, then the general rule is to match them on strategy and not surrender track position. Mercedes did neither because they failed to acknowledge Ferrari’s pace at this track in the heat. Not catastrophic, good for the sport, nice to see the emotion of Ferrari and Vettel, and maybe Hamilton will like the proximity, pressurizing Rosberg more. But the win will give Ferrari an enormous boost of confidence – more than Mercedes would like I’m sure.

    2. @bullmello Lap4-safety cars always require a reaction decided on before the race, which means a plan that is based on assumptions. Obviously, they assumed wrong. However, the assumption (nearly) everyone would pit is very understandable, it was a huge surprise to me seeing people staying out, especially on such a hot day. And staying out didn´t work for anyone bar Vettel, e.g. Perez just fell down all through the field after the restart in no time.
      So, if I had been in charge of one cars strategy, I would have pitted, too. In charge of two cars, it would have been to split strategy, but that´s obviously something Merc would be having a lot of trouble with, expecting a lot of media-reaction.
      However, I guess (by the sound of the team-radio) Rosberg realised on lap 21 that he wouldn´t beat Vettel, and it was quite funny how the Merc-engineers seemed to block out that notion, just like they didn´t see the constant pace Vettel had. “The new data is so far of expectations, it can´t be real. Oh… Ouch… Oops”

      1. @crammond – It was quite surprising that Vettel stayed out. It makes me wonder when Ferrari made their decision to keep him out. Pre-race strategy or decision on the spot? Either way, brilliant move.

    3. You know what they say about *assume*.

      I don’t, but you assume I do.

      1. u make an ass of me (assume)

        1. Not to split hairs, but I think it means
          “when we assume, it makes an ass out of you and me” … get it?

  2. I felt like much of the race cast Mercedes into territory that had not been simulated. This is not so much a reference to the safety car call, but a reference to having lost track position to a car with serious pace. Mercedes cannot deny this: they did not expect Ferrari to be as fast as they were, otherwise they would have not handed Vettel an opportunity by placing themselves on an asymmetrical strategy. They equally would have not used option tyres in Q1 had they foreseen Vettel’s pace: the prospect of Hamilton’s two stints on the primes almost seemed immaterial to Mercedes prior to the race.

    But why did Mercedes not foresee this pace? Raikkonen was the fastest man on-track during the long-runs in FP2, as he was in Melbourne and the Ferrari looked strong in long-runs in pre-season testing. Yes, testing is testing, and Ferrari have an uncanny habit of flattery, but in Melbourne Vettel dramatically out-gunned Massa with an “overcut” on used tyres! If Mercedes are honest, they will have to admit they were overconfident today.

    1. +1.000

    2. @countrygent clearly the used mediums Hamilton received for his last stint tend to support your theory that they didn’t even bother to anticipate a fight. Overconfidence is the word, but be sure they won’t repeat that mistake so easily now.

      1. Given that Merc seemed to be admitting before the race that Ferrari had serious pace, I wonder if what they really underestimated was their ability, at least at this race, to do one less pit stop. One more stop for SV would have meant a Ferrari 3-4, not 1-4. Merc will learn from this now that Ferrari have shown this hand, at least at hot venues.

  3. 1) Select None
    2) Select Vettel, Alonso and Button
    3) Remember JB lost 4 secs a lap at Melbourne
    4) Take comfort that McLaren only lost around 3 secs a lap just a fortnight later

    Even considering Mercedes was actually faster than Seb, it’s still a bit of progress I suppose

  4. I really don’t understand why Mercedes say the safety car hurt them. They would have to run a three stop strategy anyway, whereas Vettel would have run a two stop strategy anyway as well. A normal pit stop would have cost Hamilton twenty seconds. Under the safety car, he stopped and only lost ten seconds. So I can’t believe that the sub optimal timing of the first stop would have accounted for an additional ten second difference. Hamilton would probably have stopped around lap ten otherwise.

    However, I agree that having another new option tyre at the end would have made the race between Vettel and Hamilton very close indeed.

    1. What really hurt them was the track position lost and thus the time spent having to pass all the cars that stayed out. During those laps they couldn’t run at full speed, allowing Vettel to build a gap. If Hamilton had been running in clear air the result would have been very different.

      So it wasn’t the safety car itself that hurt, but the aftermath. I think they expected every team to pit and therefore the race order to be unchanged.

      1. @k-l-waster But as I said, HAM was only 10 seconds behind VET when he emerged into clear air. If he had done a normal first pit stop (i.e. not pitting under SC), maybe around lap 10, he would have come out 20 seconds behind VET, and would probably have been stuck in some traffic as well.

        1. Pitting under SC means having all the cars that have gone ahead of you being “bunched-up” and immediately jockeying each other for track position once SC comes in, thus making it harder to overtake them than under normal race conditions.

        2. Agreed. A stop under safety car conditions is normally considered a ‘free pit stop’, isn’t it? Although held up by traffic, Mercedes just weren’t fast enough to make up the extra stop, surely? And ate their tyres too fast to two-stop.

        3. Take this scenario, No safety car:
          HAM pits in L10: (assuming lead over VET < 2 sec) comes out 20 sec behind VET. Given the pace advantage of Merc, the next competitor car 4 before pitting could be atleast 10 seconds behind the lead car and since they are front runners like RBR or Williams, would need to pit themselves around L9-12.
          VET having run at max potential for 10 whole laps with a heavy car in a dirty air would need a pit at L15 if not earlier and when he comes out, will have to push and overtake atleast one.
          HAM without the need to overtake and in cleaner air will pit much later between (30-35) maintaining the advantage.
          Now you see how SC was negative strategy wise from Merc point of view.

          1. @aks-das
            But this is not what I was referring to. I was taking the SC as a given, and then checked whether it would have been better for Merc to stay out as some have claimed. And in this case, the scenario you pointed out does not apply as HAM would have been dropped into significant traffic.

          2. Actually I note I was not clear in my initial post. Yes, the SC hurt Mercedes (as it almost always does to the guys at the front), but pitting under the SC was still the better choice even in hindsight.

    2. A normal pit stop would have cost Hamilton twenty seconds. Under the safety car, he stopped and only lost ten seconds.

      Good point.

  5. Their strategy was just as bad as the one utilized by ferrari in Abu Dhabi 2010. I couldn’t believe it.

  6. Wow, look at Manor on that graph. They need to seriously improve relative to the rest of the field else Bernie might just have a point after all.

  7. Mercedes may have wanted to switch from a M-M-H to a M-H-H strategy, but to throw away the mediums after four laps was an enormous waste. Of course if everyone else (and it was almost so) made the same decision we wouldn’t be here discussing, but I think Ferrari, Force India and Toro Rosso were the only ones to make a sensible decision, no genius involved but careless thinking by the rest.

  8. Why did Hamilton go 10 seconds slower than the delta on their way to the safety-car pitstop? The normal way as a team on the way to double-stacking would be the lead-driver driving to the delta and the 2nd driver going slower in order to not lose track position while waiting in the pits.

    1. Returning the favour after Rosberg’s slowing down the day before?

  9. Select none, select Hamilton and Vettel, look at lap 18 to 23: Vettel takes more than 12 sec on Hamilton, and then Hamilton visits the pitlane to get some decent rubber, but the battle is lost as he is out of option tyres for the last stint.
    Looking at lap 6 to 12, Hamilton looses 6,5 sec in traffic compared to Vettel.
    Even if he had had a decent set of Option tyres for the last stint he probably wouldn’t have come nearer than 4-5 sec’s of Vettel.
    In hindsight I do understand why Merc did send Lewis to pit with the safety car, but they should have put Rosberg on a different strategy. This could actually ad value to the excitement this season: A Ferrari pressure will force Merc to select split strategies when in doubt.

    1. agree, VET’s 2nd stint shows massive performance difference, but HAM’s old prime tyres vs VET’s new options would look like this as expected. Surprising that Merc pitted both cars AND put both on primes as early as lap 4. HAM on options for 2nd stint might have been a winner given an inevitable SC pit (he was in the lead at the time, so only prescience would have told him to stay out.)

    2. Everything is down to tyre management.
      Mercedes couldn’t do 19 laps on mediums, but could on hards.

      So they split the 19 laps on mediums on a 4+15.

      A very unusual situation for the rest of the season, i guess. There’s no other place as hot.
      I expect Mercedes to put on some wins as they are still quicker.

  10. Glad they know where they went wrong and will focus to avoid same mistake going forward.

  11. Merc was going to lose whether they pitted or not. Based on Friday FP times, on either tire, they had similar pace as Ferrari and much worse tire wear. All you have to do is look at the Mercs yesterday after they cleared traffic — Hamilton’s 3rd Stint on Mediums was 14 laps and his tires went off. Vet did 17 and 20 on his 2 medium tire stints. If there was no safety car, the margin of victory would have been even bigger for Vettel. Merc should be thankful for Nasr giving Kimi a puncture or it would have been a Ferrari 1-2.

    The only reason we are having this conversation is that the two Merc drivers are too insecure to be put on separate strategies. Merc should have brought in one driver and left the other one out. I can hear Hamilton (who I like) whinging after being left out and still falling behind Vettel “you should have brought me in”.

    There other truth, right now, is that no matter what, Rosberg was never going to pass Vettel. He’s not driving good enough for any strategy to have made the difference.

    1. Well if Merc was never going to win this race, then I think you are being wholely unfair to NR in saying he was never going to pass SV…neither was LH by your standard.

      If you are going to play woulda, coulda, shoulda, and if there was no safety car, NR would not have been relegated to 9th, such that he had to reel LH and SV in, and in fact ended up reeling in SV quicker than LH was in the last 10 laps.

      As to insecurities toward separate strategies…this is a close rivalry and needs careful management by the team. I don’t think it would be any different for any two drivers who are in WDC capable cars. Any two who can have a blanket thrown over them pace-wise are always going to want equal treatment to their teammate at all times, but would be willing to try different strategies if circumstances dictate it.

    2. As it is clear from the graphs, at no point in the race RAI was steadily gaining on VET, and he was only gaining on HAM and ROS between LAP 19 and 24. Moreover, since he got into 4th at lap 40, in the next 16 laps he lost 14 secs to VET (almost a sec per lap), 18 secs to HAM, and since lap 42 he lost ca. 24 secs to ROS (almost 2 secs per lap). So, RAI was slower than VET even when running in clean air while having fresher tyres than him (since his puncture basically put him on the same strategy as both Mercs), and he almost never matched the pace of the Merc boys. Based on this data, the only way a Ferrari 1-2 could happen was if both Mercs would retire.

  12. The more i read about this race, the more i think Mercedes just thought too high of their car.
    Last year on inumerous times they were so far ahead, strategy wasn’t even a concern. They simply had the speed to compensate everything.

    Yesterday they didn’t. And i believe everybody who reads F1Fanatic knew since friday that Ferrari was closer than ever this weekend.

    They were careless and lost the race. Simple as that.

    1. Perhaps, except that even Merc were admitting ahead of the race that Ferrari were definitely the most improved. Perhaps they underestimated Ferrari, but it did take a wet quali, and a safety car, and Ferrari being able to pit one less time, so I’m not sure Merc were all that careless. They did their best under the circumstances, will learn from it, and will likely be 1-2 in China.

  13. Ok, now which are the tracks which have high tyre wear, would not miss those races

Comments are closed.