Brigit Adongo
Controversial and unpredictable. Perhaps these are the right words to describe Formula One this season, especially when it comes to the Mercedes team’s decisions and circumstances.
The latest incident happened at the Turkish Grand Prix, costing the team’s lead driver a crucial eight points against his rival, despite their second driver’s win.
Despite insinuations from the different press that the team’s call to pit cost Hamilton a better finish, both the 7-time champion and his team have argued that the decision made at that time was the right one.
The latest to comment on the matter is Toto Wolff, who thinks that the best decision at that time couldn’t have been made by Hamilton, as it’s apparently difficult to assess one’s position in the race while in the car.
Wolff didn’t waver despite Hamilton feeling that he could go all the way without changing tires, and despite how things ended up, Toto still thinks what they settled on was the best choice.
He says they made that choice because Hamilton’s tires were wearing off fast and he would have dropped to worse than fifth, so they had to secure at least that position. “Unfortunately, the pace just dropped off…we decided let’s consolidate fifth,” Toto revealed.
It looks like Hamilton made a mistake by not pitting when he was advised to, which made it too late by the time he gave in. “…I would have pitted 10 laps earlier and fought it out,” he stated, but it was not clear whether he meant to blame anyone as he further said “there was much more to gain from the other more dynamic variant.”
The season is still far from done and, hopefully, Mercedes will set their records straight and get back on one page to get better results.
