In the early part of last weekend's British Grand Prix, the Mercedes pit crew was seen coming out and preparing for a pit stop, but neither Hamilton nor Rosberg appeared in the pit lane.
In reality, the initiative was a ruse to dummy Williams into bringing in their own drivers, a scenario which would have most probably compromised the latter part of the British outfit's race. Much to the Williams crew's amusement, the ploy failed miserably.
"We know that Williams has more difficulties in keeping the tyres until the end," confirmed Toto Wolff, "and we knew that triggering an early stop on lap 18 would make them think if they were able to do that and trigger them into a pit stop that would have caused them problems at the end. So it was a bit of a game, which didn’t function."
Wollf also admitted his own wife, Williams test driver Susie Wolff, was the first to mock the German team's ill-fated trick.
"She sent me a Whatsapp saying: “You guys think you can fool us? Hahaha”. So it was worth at least the entertainment."
Click here for F1i's driver ratings from the British Grand Prix
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
