The Austrian Team Principal discussed his team’s very positive Mexican GP, and especially Lewis Hamilton’s P2. The Brit, who avenged the Austin podium he had lost due to a late disqualification by scoring the same result a week later, had started the race in Mexico City from P6 and quickly made his way up to the podium fight.
Key in his progression up to P2 was a bold strategy that saw the seven times World Champion end the race on medium tyres, a clear difference of tyre choice compared to the other podium contenders.
Wolff explained that the strategy had been inspired by the lack of hard tyres left in their allocation following the red flag, unlike race winner Max Verstappen who had two new hard sets, and that the decision taken before the race had been solidified by the consistent pace shown in a 31-lap stint by Charles Leclerc:
“We couldn’t really take the hard because it was seven or eight laps older than our competitors. So the medium was pretty fresh, a lap and a half, and it was holding on strong in the first stint.
“Charles did 31 laps and it didn’t really drop off, so that’s why we made the call.
“It was a courageous call from strategy and tyre people, and it paid off,” he summed up.
Photo credit: Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team
Mercedes has consistently been improving their performance over the course of the season, almost joining the battle for the win in the last three rounds.
However, Wolff believes Hamilton wouldn’t have passed Leclerc if it wasn’t for the red flag due to Mercedes struggling on the straights and having older tyres versus Leclerc: “We lacked straight-line speed, I think it would have been really difficult.”
He stressed the importance of Hamilton’s ability and skill in securing yet another podium for the Silver Arrows, adding he has never doubted the Brit’s talent and skill for a single second.
“We have had such a long journey together [Lewis and I] together that over those twelve years, we have been building each other up.
“On various occasions when, I think, he would need a bit of support, then we would do this, and the other way round.”
It had definitely been a challenging first period with the new generation of cars in 2022 for Hamilton and the whole team, but a lot of progress has been made since, even if the 103-time Grand Prix winner is still trying to score his first race win since the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP.
“I have never had a millimetre of doubt about Lewis’ driving, and I told him that probably more often than he wanted to hear it, and today you have seen it. It was just a perfect drive.”
Asked about the race restart after the red flag, which should have seen Hamilton at a strong advantage over the drivers surrounding him due to being on a softer tyre compound for the standing start, Wolff wasn’t able to pinpoint a single reason for the way the launch wasn’t great.
“Yeah, we need to analyse that. I think it was a bad start. We need to see whether we hit the sweet spot of the clutch, or whether we had too much wheelspin, or whatever it was
“But Lewis said that on the radio that it was a s*** start. We expected much more, maybe even sticking our nose ahead.
“But I don’t think it would have been fast enough with Max. We lacked the straight-line speed, so that’s how it would have ended I guess,” he concluded, knowing that Hamilton had definitely maximised the performance of his car.
