Toto Wolff reckons Mercedes would have been in contention for a podium in Sunday’s Japanese GP but for an ‘atrocious’ first stint that set back its drivers from the outset.
There was nothing lost and nothing gained for the Brackley squad in Suzuka where George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished respectively seventh and ninth, their exact same positions - but in reverse – on the race’s grid.
Mercedes’ strategists opted to start their drivers’ race on the medium compound but the latter was immediately swapped for a set of hards during the event’s red flag period triggered after just one lap.
But mediocre pace on the white-rimmed compound after the restart decided Mercedes to ditch the idea of reaching the checkered flag on just one stop, with Hamilton and Russell reverting to their initial medium tyres for their final stint.
Russell eventually gained an upper hand over his teammate and then came out on top of a battle with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri to finish P7 with Hamilton concluding his afternoon P9.
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Wolff believed that his drivers’ poor pace during their opening stint set the team back significantly and thwarted their podium ambitions.
“We ended up where we started and it was just very difficult," Wolff told Sky Sports F1. "We had a second and third stint that was super quick and we would've been racing for a podium but an atrocious first stint.
"We need to find out what it was, was it too hot, were we overmanaging."
Wolff suggested that the option to run a long stint on the hard tyres after the red flag was initially the right choice. But a sudden drop-off in performance threw a wrench into that plan.
"I think it was the right thing to do at the beginning because it looked pretty stable in terms of lap times," he said.
"They were not pulling away too much, the direct competitors, but then it suddenly dropped like two seconds a lap and two and a half seconds per lap. In that moment it was clear it wouldn't last."
Hamilton was skeptical that a green flag race from start to finish would have yielded a better result, as Mercedes’ drivers would have still been forced to run two stints on the hard tyre due to the team’s compound selection.
The seven-time world champion also explained why he volunteered to let Russell go by on lap 13.
"I don't know what the different strategy would've been, whether we stayed on the medium to start, but we still had two really terrible hard tyres to run through," commented the Briton.
"A real challenge today. I think I picked up a bit of damage at the beginning when Charles came around the outside and had huge understeer for the first stint and I couldn't turn the car through any of the corners, so that is why I let George go by.
"The hard tyre was pretty bad, as I said, but the medium tyre was better. In hindsight, it looks like we should have had two medium tyres. But in general, the car was pretty bad today."
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