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There has been a lot of talk about Mercedes’ strategy choices in recent races, especially the United States Grand Prix, where Lewis Hamilton failed to catch Max Verstappen in time.
At the United States Grand Prix Mercedes tried to keep Lewis Hamilton on the track longer than his rival Max Verstappen, in an effort to allow him to have fresher tyres in the final stages of the race, hoping that he would be able to pass the Dutch driver later.
However, many are now saying that Mercedes should have played it differently, and pit Lewis immediately after Max came in, to prevent him from achieving an undercut.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff explains how these decisions are made, and what role he plays in making them.
“There’s a great group of people in Brackley who obviously have all the tools and math behind it,” the Austrian said.
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“And that is being discussed on the strategy channel between the Brackley base and James [Vowles, chief strategist], the pit wall and myself.
“It’s a brainstorm, and I need to be [involved]. I’m very involved in the decision-making process, in terms of [that] they run – James runs – his strategy thinking past me.
“I would only give the feedback that I have because I have more bandwidth. I’m not looking at the specific data channel, but I’m able to look at the intercom, the audio messaging from the other team and obviously [see] how the race pans out.”
Wolff ultimately describes himself as a “sounding board” and “sparring partner” for Vowles, but he also plays a “pretty active” as the strategy unfolds.
