Photo credit: Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team
After a spirited challenge to Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz throughout the Singapore Grand Prix, Mercedes banked their winning hopes on pulling both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in from second and fifth, respectively, for medium tyres during a virtual safety car period with 17 laps to go.
The move nearly paid off; as the leading cars of Sainz and McLaren’s Lando Norris faded on old hard tyres, the Mercedes duo moved back up and pulled right on the tail of Norris, who had closed to just within DRS range of Sainz. As the front pair fought to keep enough grip to stay up front, the Mercedes pair continued to push both them and each other, culminating in Russell going off a half-lap from the finish while Hamilton took his fifth podium of the season, but still unable to get around Norris or Sainz.
After the race, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff defended the call to bring both drivers in for medium tyres late. “I think it was the absolute right call. We would have finished P2-P5, maybe P2-P4, and we wanted to win the race. So we took the risk. And I would, every day of the week, do it again.”
“There’s mathematicians and scientists and strategists that work to come up with the best solutions. And then there’s more, simpler, racing minds that are trying to find the best compromise. But in that case, there was a lot of debate beforehand[…]. We did it, and then it was deployed, and we were all behind it.”
Wolff was also questioned about allowing Russell and Hamilton to race, as opposed to having Russell give way to Hamilton, who got the bonus point for fastest lap shortly after putting on those medium tyres and looked to be the faster of the two drivers after closing a 5-second gap to basically nothing.
“No. I think that both played for the victory, and in that circumstance, you’ve just got to let them race. Let them fight it out between themselves.”
