© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
Mercedes Motorsport Strategy Director James Vowles explains how Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas’ Mexican Grand Prix start differed from the original plan and notes even Max Verstappen “was going in there guessing and hoping for the best”.
Mercedes had a perfect starting position at the Mexican Grand Prix, after they locked out the front row in Saturday’s Qualifying.
Considering Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez has the fastest Turn 1 approach of the year, James Vowles explains it was important for Mercedes to plan out a starting strategy.
“The strategy and approach to Turn 1 was quite straightforward here,” Vowles said in Mercedes’ race debrief.
“For Valtteri, if he had a good start, he was going to let Lewis tow along behind him and make sure that he covered off that threat from Verstappen.
“The starts, as they turned out, was that Valtteri had a slightly worse start than both Verstappen and Lewis – not a lot, around about four metres or so, but it was sufficient that Lewis wasn’t able to tuck up behind.
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“More so, Verstappen’s start being good meant he was alongside Valtteri very, very quickly. The result of that is they ended up three-wide incredibly quickly and early on during the run down into Turn 1.
“Even so the differences in braking should have been a few metres, not perhaps the difference that you saw. Ultimately the drivers braked where they thought they could.
“If you saw Verstappen’s comments afterwards, it is quite clear that he was going in there guessing and hoping for the best, and it worked out for him.
“We ended up losing out there as a result of it, and more so as we went into it, as you saw other cars perhaps locking up – [Daniel] Ricciardo being one of them, contact happened and Valtteri got taken out and pushed to the back of the grid.”
Although Vowles acknowledges Red Bull had the faster car, he thinks Mercedes would have had a chance to win the race had they managed to keep their starting positions.
“Had we got away and been in first and second, I think there was a good chance that we would have been able to defend against the Red Bulls all race.
“Conversely, if we were first but we had both Red Bulls tucked behind us in second and third, I think it would have been awfully difficult to hold on to the race lead.
“They could have stopped one car early, one car late and ultimately, we would have been a compromise with those two cars.
“Where we finished up, P2 with Lewis, was really correct based on performance sadly after the start had happened, and I am happy we held on to it.
“It was a defensive strategy we employed all race. Of course, in Valtteri’s case really, he walked away with far less than he deserved.
“Had he not been hit in Turn 1, we really should have walked away with fourth at worst and third more realistically,” the Briton concluded.
