It was a pretty decent week for Mercedes in Mexico City. The Silver Arrows looked competitive against the mighty Red Bull for the first time this season. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton missed out on the pole position by three-tenths of a second. But more importantly, Mercedes covered a significant gap in the constructor’s championship against second-placed Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton could have challenged Max Verstappen for the win for the first time this season. However, Mercedes’ incorrect tire strategy meant Verstappen cruised to his 14th win of the season. Moreover, Mercedes’s strategy director revealed why the team chose to go on hard instead of soft tires in Mexico.

James Vowles said that the hard tires weren’t terrible and hence Mercedes opted to put Lewis on hard tires. They expected Lewis to finish the race with the same sets and hoped that Verstappen’s medium tires would give up. However, that wasn’t the case as Verstappen finished the race on the mediums.

He further added, “With George, there was a lot more opportunity to really keep going long and fit the soft tire and that was the plan. Before the Race and it’s what we discussed live in the race with George as well.” James continued stating, “George was starting to lose a lot of time, and Medium Tire really just struggling at the end of its degradation stint.”

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“In hindsight, it was a wrong decision. I think when you look back and you look at Ricciardo, we should have just kept going.” However, Vowles admitted “it would have been a better race than what we did” had Mercedes stuck to their plan.

Toto Wolff defends Mercedes’ strategy on Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in Mexico

Like James, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has also defended their strategy in Mexico. The Austrian also admitted that Red Bull’s pace at the closing stages of the race on the Medium tires came as a big surprise. Mercedes lacked the pace to cover the distance between Verstappen as he ultimately won the race.

Toto said, “No. In hindsight, it’s always easier to judge, but I think the one-stop, medium to hard, looked like the right strategy. That the medium at the end held on for so long came as a surprise, but hindsight is a thing. If we were to restart the race, maybe we would choose a different tire.”

Wolff also stated that they could have stretched the medium tires for a few laps more before finishing the race on the soft tires. He cited Daniel Ricciardo as an example adding that it was a possible outcome.

However, the Silver Arrows fell short on Sunday. But Mercedes earned good points as Lewis Hamilton bagged consecutive 2nd place finishes. Russell also finished P4 and picked up the fastest lap.

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Mercedes have recovered drastically after a shocking start to the season. Can Mercedes challenge Red Bull in the last two races of the season and finish above the Prancing Horse in the constructor’s championship?