© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff admits the team got Lewis Hamilton’s Dutch Grand Prix strategy wrong, but he concedes “at the end, you’re always more clever”.
Mercedes attempted to perform an undercut on Max Verstappen on two occasions at the Dutch Grand Prix, but they ultimately failed and the Briton finished in P2.
Toto Wolff says it’s obvious now that they made a mistake.
“We had, I think, a sniff of an undercut there,” the Austrian told Sky Sports F1.
“We didn’t time it right. I mean, at the end, you’re always more clever. We didn’t expect them to go on the hard tyre because it was an unknown.
“We didn’t drive the hard tyre on the Friday, and we thought we might be pushing them early with the soft. But it is what it is.”
In their second attempt Max Verstappen’s car was fitted with the hard tyre, while Mercedes put Lewis on mediums. Wolff admits they didn’t expect that.
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“I think the hard tyre was a bit of a gamble. You could have seen that on the Ferraris that it was going well, but it was unknown territory because none of us had really run it. We didn’t run it at least.”
Lewis managed to pick up a point for fastest lap in the last lap of the race, but not without a bit of controversy.
Mercedes had asked Valtteri Bottas not to go for fastest lap, after his last pit stop, but the Finn proceeded to do purple sectors. The team then asked him to abort the lap, which he did, but it was too late as he got the fastest lap.
Luckily for Mercedes, Lewis managed to beat the time on the final lap of the race. Wolff was asked about this, but he says Valtteri did nothing wrong.
“He was backing off. I think we just wanted to make sure that it was not happening. That’s why we re-emphasised politely on the lap and then he backed off.”
