Marko Hanželic
The decision to stop in the last stage of the race for GP of Turkey in Istanbul, she took care of quite a bit in Mercedes boxes excitement and quite a bit of panic, as the decision was anything but easy due to the many variables. In the end, it all didn’t go according to plan as it did Hamilton lost two places when he turned three laps into the pits for Charles Leclerc.
But the question that arises is whether Hamilton could I really keep third place if I stayed outside? Chief Engineer at Mercedes, Andrew Shovlin, explains that Hamilton had to wrap up in the pits earlier, right after the duel with Perez. At that time, most of the racers turned into the pits, including the already mentioned Perez.
In that part of the race, they were at Mercedes in the end, they decided not to change the tires, for two reasons. "We said to ourselves that we will wait a little longer, as this will offer us new opportunities. In case the track started to dry faster, Lewis would be in a fight to win as he wasn’t in the pits yet. Another option was to hold on to these tires until the end and keep third place. According to the simulations we performed, neither the first nor the second option was realistically achievable, so we decided to change it late, " is a decision he later appealed Hamilton, explained Shovlin.
