Mercedes Explain Decision to Overrule Hamilton Amid Critical Error
F1Wednesday, 25 September 2024 at 22:00
Toto Wolff explained Mercedes's reasoning behind not listening to Lewis Hamilton and putting him on soft tires at the start of the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix.
The 18th round of the 2024 season at Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore was Lewis Hamilton's 350th Grand Prix start. However, despite a great qualifying performance, the seven-time World Champion didn't get a chance to celebrate it on the podium.
After starting from P3, Hamilton only lost positions throughout the race to cross the finish line in P6. Speaking at a 50th anniversary event for Petronas (Mercedes's main sponsor), the 39-year-old said his F1 team didn't listen to him before the start of the race.
The seven-time World Champion wanted to start the race on the medium compound, but Mercedes ultimately overruled him, and that decision proved to be wrong. The F1 team principal, Toto Wolff, explained after the race:
"I think we've read the race wrong. We took a decision based on historic Singapore races where it is basically a procession, Monaco-like, and that the soft tire would give him an opportunity at the start."
"That was pretty much the only overtaking opportunity. That was the wrong decision that we all took together jointly. It felt like a good offset, but with the rear tire deg that we had, it was just one way, and that was backward."
Lewis Hamilton on the soft compound tires at the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix
Mercedes hoped to fight for the podium with the drivers in front, and getting ahead of them on the soft compound after the Grand Prix start would help Hamilton. The problem was that that didn't happen.
What's more, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen (who were ahead) then ramped up their pace so much that the 39-year-old couldn't keep pace with them and had high tire degradation simultaneously.
"So, there was a logic behind it but obviously it was contrary to what we should've decided but it doesn't hide away from the fact that the car is too slow. Maybe the opposition are ahead or behind, but that doesn't change anything."
Mercedes's technical director, James Allison, also admitted during the Singapore Grand Prix race debrief that the team should have gone for the strategy that Lewis Hamilton proposed:
"We shouldn't have started on the softs, that was a mistake. If we could turn back time, we would do what those around us did and select mediums."
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