Bojan Vrbnjak
It wasn't just the early stop that mattered Red Bull Racing, even more so the way it is Max Verstappen fooled the entire leadership of the Mercedes team. James vowles he looks back at the race once more.
V Mercedes report on the team channel YouTube, the team’s chief strategist James vowles discusses an exciting duel between Lewis Hamilton in Max Verstappn. The Briton discusses the decisions that were made behind the command desk. Vowles focuses on the last stint and explains Mercedes' consideration. "One part we have control over is the degradation of our tires and when to make a stop. The second part we have no insight into is the degradation of Verstappn tires and where the curve of the tires themselves begins."
Vowles admits that Verstappen bypassed Mercedes calculations. Because the Dutchman managed to keep the tires until the end of the race. “We predicted that Verstappen would fall outside the tire curve. This also happened in the last lap of the race. If this had happened a lap or two earlier, the race would have been completely different. This last stint worked well for them and they kept the tires in the corners so they had enough left for the last few laps."
