‘A child could have calculated Mercedes’ strategy error’

Mercedes cannot cope when they are under pressure – that’s according to RTL pundit Allard Kalff, who believes they “lose their way”.

And pressure is what Mercedes felt at the United States Grand Prix.

With Lewis Hamilton losing pole position to Max Verstappen at the Circuit of The Americas, the Briton was under pressure to get it right in Sunday’s 56-lap grand prix.

He did that at the start, taking the lead off Verstappen into the first corner. However, Red Bull responded by changing up their pit-stop strategy and bringing in Verstappen early.

He got the undercut on Hamilton at both stops with Mercedes opting not to react to Verstappen’s second stop, only bringing in Hamilton eight laps later.

Mercedes late again to react. They are making the same mistakes in strategy like Ferrari do.

 

Lewis Hamilton begs for Mercedes upgrades to car

Toto Wolff has downplayed the prospect of Mercedes bringing in upgrades to their car after Lewis Hamilton demanded improvements following a frustrating Styrian Grand Prix. Hamilton finished second to a dominant Max Verstappen, who took a trouble-free win from pole position.

Following the first round of pit-stops, Verstappen steadily increased his gap to Hamilton, to all-but-end his title rival’s hopes of pitting again and overtaking him.

Though the final gap between the two was biased by Hamilton making a second stop, Verstappen was already on course to set a new record at the Red Bull Ring for margin of victory.

The win saw Verstappen extend his lead in the world championship to 18 points, with Hamilton calling for his team to bring some new upgrades to their car.

“I was trying to keep up but the speed they have, they’ve obviously made some big improvements over the last couple of races,” he told Sky Sports.

“They’ve definitely made some big steps the last couple of races and we’ve not really got an answer for it.”

“I don’t remember the last time we had an upgrade. But they have. They’ve brought the engine upgrade and they’ve brought some other part of the package and it’s just eeked them ahead.

“We need an upgrade of some sort. We need to find some performance from somewhere.”

But with the regulations set to undergo a major change for next season, with the sport set to be turned on its head, Mercedes boss Wolff played down the chances of any upgrades this season.

Instead, Wolff wants his team to put all their energy into designing next season’s car to ensure they set themselves up for the long-term.

“It is a very, very tricky decision because we are having new regulations not only for next year but the years to come, a completely different car concept,” he told Sky Sports.

“You’ve got to choose the right balance and pretty much everybody’s going to be on next year’s cars. Some may still bring stuff.