Nov
Did the team’s decision to use all of their Soft tyres throughout qualifying in Mexico seal their fate and prevent them from stopping their winless streak in 2022?
Mercedes had two of its greatest chances to earn their first Grand Prix of the season in the previous two Formula 1 races.
In both the US and Mexico Grands Prix, Lewis Hamilton appeared to be capable of competing with Max Verstappen for the victory. Team Principal Toto Wolff acknowledged that Mexico offered their best chance of breaking their winless streak in 2022.
Mattia Binotto, the team principal for Ferrari, referred to Mercedes and emphasised how their selection of tyres during qualifying at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez sealed their fate in the competition.
In hindsight, according to James Vowles, director of strategy for Mercedes Motorsport, using a new set of Soft tyres would have resulted in a “better race” in Mexico.
Mercedes believed Soft and Medium tyres wouldn’t last very far
To guarantee they finished on the first row, Mercedes decided to race both of their cars in qualifying on four fresh sets of Soft tyres throughout Q1, Q2, and Q3. As a result, the race could only use the Medium and Hard tyres.
Vowles remarked in the team’s Race Debrief film that the squad in Mexico was more concerned with preserving track position because they didn’t think the Soft or Medium tyres would last on a one-stop approach.
“We had two choices: let Perez effectively undercut us but go long and then fit the Soft tyres or stop, and given the length of stint the Hard would have been really the tyre that could 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 some data from Latifi that had already stopped and Hard wasn’t terrible.
“So we opted to stop, put Lewis on the Hard tyre and go to the end of the race under the hope that potentially Verstappen was going to drop off that Medium curve much as we did see degradation at the end of our stint.”
Hamilton’s only practical alternative is one-stop
A fresh set of Soft tyres at the end of the competition allowed Daniel Ricciardo to overtake all of the racers in the middle of the pack on the Hard, as he demonstrated.
Ricciardo battled through the field to place seventh despite receiving a 10-second time penalty after colliding with Yuki Tsunoda.
The difference between a new and used set of Softs, though, can have a significant impact on a stint. When a new tyre is used during a race, it will live far longer than when it is misused to generate a qualifying lap.
“It was a hard choice, but we decided on balance stopping and fitting the Hard tyre would probably bring us a better result in the belief that, if we are struggling on the Medium tyre, Perez probably won’t make it to the end of the race, and they need to stop one more time.
“That in hindsight was a wrong decision and I think if you look back and you look at Ricciardo we should have just kept going.
“Yes, there was degradation [on the Medium] but we wouldn’t have gone much further before we could fit the Soft tyre. What the result would have been I am not sure, but I think it would have been a better race than what we did.”
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F1, F1 2022, Formula 1, George Russell, Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Silver Arrows, Mexico Grands Prix, Mexico GP, Toto Wolff
