Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff admitted that a miscommunication between the team pit wall and driver Lewis Hamilton cost them any chance of pulling off an undercut on Max Verstappen during today's Monaco Grand Prix.
Ina processional race largely dictated by tyre strategy, the miscue meant Hamilton was unable to pull off a pass on Verstappen for sixth place in the final laps.
Both Hamilton and Verstappen had originally started the race on hard tyres, but a red flag for a multi-car accident on lap 1 meant that everyone changed tyres for the restart - with Hamilton and Verstappen both on the mediums.
"The moment the crash happened it was clear that we were really on the back foot," Wolff lamented, saying it had sealed their fate. "Fundamentally I don't think there is a lot you can change in Monaco. You pretty much end where you start."
With the tyres looking impossible to extend to a full race distance, it meant a second stop would be needed and timing would be crucial if they were to be able to exploit the opportunity.
Mercedes brought Hamilton in on lap 51 but the team neglected to give him the direction 'out-lap critical' which meant he didn't realise that he needed to push to the fullest extent if there was a hope of jumping Verstappen.
When the Red Bull pitted on the next lap, it exited in front of Hamilton and the chance was lost leaving Hamilton demanding to know "Why didn't you tell me out-lap was critical?" over the team radio.
"That was a miscommunication first between us on the pitwall that we got that wrong," Wolff told GP Racing after the finish. "It should have been an 'out-lap critical', trying to undercut.
"But then there was a debate whether any out-lap would be enough from the new tyre and so the message he got was at best confusing but probably wrong," Wolff continued.
"It should have been an 'out-lap critical' and the worry in the background was that if we thrashed that tyre in a single lap then what would happen later?" he explained. "But in summary: wrong message to Lewis, this was the team's fault."
There was also the question of why Hamilton left it so late in the race to pit given that he had enough time in hand over Yuki Tsunoda to come in and get out again without losing position.
"We wanted to be close to Verstappen and then do the undercut," Wolff said. "Which obviously we got the messaging completely wrong."
Hamilton's team mate had the same tyre dilemma in the race and opted to stay out to the finish on the ageing mediums. Incredibly he was able to fend off Verstappen on a much newer set of tyres to finish in P5.
"We had good pace and were able to show that near the end, despite being on 70-lap old medium tyres," Russell; said. We were closing on the top four at the end and only finished a handful of seconds off P1.
"We spent a lot of time this morning going through all the strategy options. When we lined up on the grid, and everyone ahead was on the Medium compound, I was very happy."
Things had looked even better when Carlos Sainz two places ahead of him suffered a puncture at the start, but the red flag saw the Ferrari reinstated to P3 for the restart. "That made our lives more difficult!
I spent the first 30 laps taking it easy and in the end, I was able to keep the tyres in a good place and get to the end," Russell said. Max put me under a bit of pressure at the end, but it was all pretty controlled."
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