© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
Lewis Hamilton scored his 98th victory as the Spanish Grand Prix in part thanks to an unexpected strategy from Mercedes. Mika Häkkinen says Lewis’ trust in his strategists was the key to success.
While Lewis Hamilton was trailing Max Verstappen on Lap 42 of the Spanish Grand Prix, he was surprisingly called in for his second pit stop.
The idea was that Hamilton would take on a fresh set of rubber and then be able to make up for a 20-something gap to Verstappen (that opened up after the pit stop) in the 24 remaining laps.
As Häkkinen put it, the strategy “looked like a mistake” to some people, but Lewis Hamilton put his trust in his team.
“Trust is an important part of the teamwork we see in Formula One,” wrote Häkkinen in his Unibet column.
“And Lewis Hamilton’s 98th victory was down to the trust he placed in his race strategists when they called him in for a second pit stop during Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.
“To some people this looked like a mistake, leaving Lewis with a 22 second gap to race leader Max Verstappen, but Mercedes’ strategists – based at their team HQ in England – knew that the World Champion had the pace to catch and overtake the Red Bull-Honda.
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“This had been planned by Mercedes all weekend. They gave both Lewis and Valtteri Bottas a 2-stop strategy option on Sunday by having two sets of medium tyres available – a new set and a used set – while Red Bull only gave Max a one set of mediums for the race.
“This is so typical of Mercedes and is the reason why Lewis and Valtteri know they are driving for the best team in Formula One at the moment.
“Not only is the car quick enough to compete with the very strong Red Bull, but the team are on top of their job with strategy calls.
“Even when both Lewis and Valtteri lost positions at the start, Lewis dropping behind Max and Valtteri behind Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, they were able to recover to finish 1st and 3rd on a circuit where overtaking is extremely difficult.
The Finn believes Mercedes’ strategy and Max Verstappen’s mistakes were some of the factors that decided the outcome of the first four races of the 2021 season.
“Looking at these first four races, Mercedes has done a fantastic job at using strategy to gain an advantage over Red Bull.
“The small mistakes from Max have given Lewis opportunities,” concluded
