Mercedes have explained why they chose to start Lewis Hamilton on a set of soft tyres in the Singapore Grand Prix, a decision the driver said made him “so angry”.
Hamilton said he tried to resist Mercedes’ push for him to start the race on a set of softs. He slipped from third to sixth place in the race after having to pit for hard tyres earlier than most of his rivals.Mercedes technical director James Allison admitted they had got the call wrong, “We shouldn’t have started on the softs, that was a mistake,” he said in a video released by the team. “If we could turn back time, we would do what those around us did and select the mediums.”
He said the team was caught out because the pace at the front of the field was quicker than they expected. “The reasoning was that the soft tyre very often allows you to get away from the start abruptly and allows you a good chance of jumping a place or two in the opening laps of the race,” said Allison. “And we had no real expectation before the race that we were going to suffer the sorts of difficulties that we then experienced on the soft rubber.
“We imagined we would get the upside of the soft rubber of getting a place or two. We didn’t, because that just isn’t the way the starts played out.
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“Then we hoped that the downside of the soft being a bit more fragile wouldn’t really play out particularly badly because if you look back over the years in Singapore, on the whole, the pace starts very, very easy at the Singapore race and the drivers then build up the pace over many, many laps, leaving a soft tyre perfectly okay to run relatively deep into the pit window.
“So we didn’t get the places at the start, the pace started to build up from around about lap five. And that left Lewis with a car that was not particularly happy anyway, suffering from quite poor tyre degradation and needing to come in early as a consequence and really ruined his race for him. So just a clear mistake.”
Starting on soft tyres potentially gave Hamilton the advantage of being able to switch to the medium rubber later in the race. Allison said Mercedes considered this but it did not look like a superior call at any stage in the race.
“It was certainly there as a great weapon,” he said. “Had there been a Safety Car at an opportune moment in the race, that would have would have been one of the upsides of that strategy.
“But once embarked upon the soft-hard strategy, we were considering changing to a two-stop for Lewis at various points during the race. But although that would have put him out on fresher rubber and he would have been swift on that fresher rubber. All our calculations suggested that he would not actually have gained back the pit stop loss.
“So it was there in the hutch, we could have used it, would have been good at a Safety Car. But in a normal, uninterrupted race, which for the first time in forever we got in Singapore, that tyre was not a thing that would have helped Lewis this weekend.”
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2024 Singapore Grand Prix
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FlyingLap (@flyinglapp)
25th September 2024, 17:17
Mercedes didn’t anticipate that Hamilton would outqualify Russell. The race ‘strategy’ was to put Hamilton behind Russell as soon as possible. Ever since he signed with Ferrari Russell has been getting the better race calls. Understandable perhaps since Lewis will soon be ‘the enemy’. Hamilton should have expected this treatment and use it as motivation once he’s dressed in red.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
25th September 2024, 17:41
That doesn’t really make sense as Hamilton backed Russell up into Piastri and the Ferraris. They would (and should) have swapped the cars to give Russell a buffer if they were really favouring him. Imho it’s more a question of denying the reality from Mercedes. Instead of maximizing their position they try to achieve the impossible (the lucky race win) by reverting to strange strategies.
Joo
25th September 2024, 19:05
Toto just wanted Russell ahead of Hamilton. Hamilton would have had to come in to change tires early anyway, and would have dropped into the mid-pack trafic. On top of that, the old soft tires.
Harsha Vardhan Maagalam
26th September 2024, 3:33
I really don’t get this fan cry.
It’s been 11 yrs with this team, why would Merc hurt their own strategy ? Yes they tried outside usual, but thats what you do when you don’t have the fastest car right ?
If fans can doubt about Merc sabotaging Lewis since he leaving Merc , why would Lewis help Merc to finish ahead of Ferrari ?how about this ?
It a million dollar operation, thats not how things work, ” let’s get our revenge on Lewis”
Red Andy (@red-andy)
26th September 2024, 6:21
Russell has been comfortably better than Hamilton this season – if not for his Silverstone DNF and Spa DQ he’d be way ahead in the standings – so for a certain type of ‘fan’ this requires a complex conspiracy to explain.
Ajaxn
28th September 2024, 11:09
With Hamilton on his way out, Mercedes needs their shareholders to believe Russell is a competent replacement. If that means a rigged comparison to the 7 times champion, then so be it. I can see the reasoning behind it, it still doesn’t make it fair.
As they do this they give up valuable points to their rivals. I guess there must be advantages to coming 4th.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
25th September 2024, 20:54
This is fanciful thinking. Mercedes knew how the tyres would behave and chose them for that reason because they didn’t want Lewis to produce good results. My experience is if your employer chooses to give you a vehicle which makes it difficult to get the best result then you just do your best with the vehicle you’re given and try not to take it personally. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard management say things like “We don’t know how to fix this problem”, but then when the union got the right to claim extra time in those “problem” circumstances, suddenly the problems got fixed. I think Mercedes are fortunate Lewis is professional enough to care about the poor strategic decisions made.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
26th September 2024, 14:04
Yep, Lewis is playing the high ground, and biding his time after being screwed by Toto because Merc want to target a ‘younger’ demographic & the guy they handed many wins to after sabotaging their own efforts. Its all business, and lies from the top brass at Mercedes. This should show everyone the direction F1 is going, and any idea that it holds a romantic relationship with it’s heritage, or the garbage that comes out of it’s mouths about innovation, is pure droppings. F1 is only about making money for it’s stakeholders, and they say the exact opposite of what they mean or intend.
Hopefully the guys at Ferrari are different, and actually care about their own people, and haven’t sold out to faceless/nameless automated bean counters.
Ajaxn
28th September 2024, 11:13
“We imagined” “We hoped”….doesn’t sound like clear insightful calculations. There again it might have been the product of Ai. Speculations on the future based on historical data.
Edvaldo
25th September 2024, 21:50
Even if Hamilton had taken the lead, it wouldn’t last. This was not 2023 in which the fastest car was starting from the back and the cars at the front were mostly even, so Sainz could play that game for the whole race.
Norris would pressure him into using his tyres and he would’ve stopped even earlier than he did to an even longer stint with hards. It was never going to work.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
26th September 2024, 1:33
Guessing HAM has some bonuses in his contract that Mercedes doesn’t want to pay out this season. Their constructors position is pretty much set.
Nick T.
26th September 2024, 2:54
Highly doubt that. They’re trying to attract Max. They want their cars to do well. Beyond that, Lewis is not the type of driver who signs performance dependent contracts. He gets top dollar no matter what. This isn’t a Kimi at Lotus-Genji situation.
Dave
26th September 2024, 2:03
I’m sure Lewis hashed over different strategy’s and agreed or suggested to start on softs. He knew it was do or die. I personally don’t think it made sense as he gave up a podium position.
After the gamble failed, he was a sitting duck unless a red flag situation happened in the first few laps. Not sure what strategy Merc could have used during the race that would have gotten him a podium but a lot of luck would have been involved.
Lewis is likely upset with himself a bit – he has been down on himself lately. He has to understand George will be Merc’s golden boy the rest of the season and may get new parts ahead of him. But this is to be expected considering the circumstances and all teams do it – no conspiracy. He will also be kept out of some meetings as Merc don’t want him to take info with him.
While he is no doubt excited about going to Ferrari, he must tread lightly and not play the blame game or it will backfire as Ferrari is bigger than him or any driver for that matter. I think he handled himself well in Singapore by staying positive after the race ended. He’s going to probably have to do a lot of that next year – Ferrari aren’t exactly the best strategists. Interesting to see if he can blend in with the Ferrari “way”.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
26th September 2024, 14:06
Lewis said he didn’t like the strategy. So it’s pretty obvious the strategist and Toto screwed him to benefit George. George is getting screwed too. Merc apparently love to screw their own drivers. Good thing I don’t work for an org like that, incompetence is one thing, but when you work for people who actively try to stab you in the back, thats a horrible thing.
Nick T.
26th September 2024, 2:59
I’d love it if RF and F1 media in general ever focused on the races of other drivers too instead of obsessing over the same drivers (basically Norris, Lewis and Max w/whatever’s leftover for GR, CS and OP). Lewis is, what around 7th in the WDC? Why does he continue to get such disproportional coverage when little is ever focused on other drivers way outside the fight for top positions?
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
26th September 2024, 14:08
why did people pay so much attention to Schumacher when he came back, or when he was winning at Ferrari ? People like winners, and Lewis is a winner, despite his own team’s best efforts.
BasCB (@bascb)
26th September 2024, 7:50
I find it a strange statement from Mercedes. Basically – if we had known what we know now – not gaining a place at the start AND Norris quickly bolting and building that huge gap out instead of just going slow at the front – we would have done something different.
Right. Yeah, sure. But many teams would have things different with hindsight. That doesn’t mean that the strategy as they devised it was “a bad choice” per se. Just that it did not work as they hoped it would.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
26th September 2024, 14:10
if you look at the number of people who started at on softs you will realize nobody else on the grid was that stupid.
tielemst
26th September 2024, 10:27
It still screams “we were just gambling on a safety car” to me.
Moi
26th September 2024, 15:30
Which, at this track, is not the worst gamble to make.
The fact it did not pay off is no reason to whine about it with perfect hindsight. If it had payed off, I doubt we would be hearing all about ‘how angry’ someone was.
Applebook
26th September 2024, 19:40
But why gamble at all when you’re already starting in a good position? Gambling is for teams desperate for a win or a championship, neither of which applies Mercedes or Lewis. The strategy was poor even without the need for hindsight.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
27th September 2024, 16:53
So you know in order to be a strategist, you have to understand risk, how to quantify it, and how to take different aspects of a race, and see them statistically, model them statistically, and take the most reasonable action to ensure the most realistic and best possible outcome.
Putting Lewis on Softs does not resolve for a safety car, does not resolve for a definite performance loss in his second stint due to traffic. It was an invalid assumption, which given JA’s talk post race, where he talks at length about the risk Softs and high temperatures present the team, even proves they KNEW (PREMEDITATION) that the softs were an unresonable gamble WITH NO POSSIBLE PAYOUT.
Toto insults Lewis at the end of the race, for losing 40 seconds to his teammate because he was forced to take an inferior strategy. Nobody with any sense should take Toto at his word, or believe that he has any kind of interest in seeing Lewis Hamilton succeed at team merc, … Especially at Ferrari, where his veiled threat to have HAM only see the back end of his team’s cars.
Toto hates Lewis, his team is sabotaging him, and Lewis always has so much positive things to say about the team, never sleights management, even though they have chronically screwed him over.
This is the mark of an abusive relationship, w/ the signature discard going on. Its very simple, and it says everything about the brass at Merc and how much they won’t stand up for doing the right thing.
Ajaxn
28th September 2024, 11:26
Much of what you say made sense up until you said ‘Toto hates Lewis’.
This isn’t about an emotional based reaction. This is about a business calculation. A polarised reaction like Hate has nothing to do with this situation.
Toto needs Russell to be perceived by F1 as a better driver. He needs to bolster the psychology of the driver they will rely on. Toto needs his shareholders to believe the team is in good hands.
This has nothing to do with ‘hate’, any more than their relationship before was based on ‘love’. It has everything to do with market perceptions. Yes, they have screwed Lewis, but it’s all business.
JMDan (@danmar)
26th September 2024, 21:37
This decade, especially, is proving that the old saying “you can’t fix stupid” is, indeed, true.
Webbo (@webbo82)
27th September 2024, 9:16
“no indication” is an interesting way of describing HAM’s experience. Or maybe an over-reliance on data.
Ajaxn
28th September 2024, 11:28
LOL. Its something a computer AI might say. The irony is they are also messing with the data that feeds that AI. GIGO.