Mercedes strategy of the Race - Monaco

[Tazio]

big donkey goes to the German TV biased coverage... Alonso well deserved it (against our poor hulk ), but Ric vs Kimi was "meh, these things happen in Monaco when you've nowhere to go"...
And I thought Spanish TV were bad, but these were unbelievable!

Donkie I don't know from German TV or Spanish TV, and I do know that Mercedes is every bit an English team as they are a German one But did you see how easily Red Bull got Danny boy past Danny K, because he had a legit shot at getting on the podium, and then how easily they put it right on the last lap. Mercedes is by far the best car out there, but they remind me of the totally dysfunctional family that lives down the street!

[longisland]

Maybe this is Mercedes' pay back to Nico for holding position 2 years ago in Malaysia. So Maldonado is spared for this race?

[Mark]

Can only assume that with the safety car being out Merc assumed that they could get Hammy into the pits and back out in the lead? They just got their sums badly wrong.

[Ranger]

Can only assume that with the safety car being out Merc assumed that they could get Hammy into the pits and back out in the lead? They just got their sums badly wrong.

They probably calculated the gap before the Virtual Safety car and didn't account for any time loss from there until the pit-stop.

This was the biggest preventable team blunder I've seen in a while.

All things considered I thought Hamilton handled it pretty well.

[Mia 01]

It could decide the WDC in the end, but, it´s not likely.

[Nitrodaze]

I am finding it hard to believe they made an error. I think they wanted the result. With commentators speechless that they brought Lewis in from what seemed like a safe win position to change tyres with 10 laps to go, seemed an unbelievable error, especially for a meticulous team like mercedes. Hamilton was in no real threat from Vettel, especially if Vettel had pitted for fresh tyres which would have put him a few places back from 2nd position, probably behind Kvyat or Kimi. Overtaking being nearly impossible in Monaco between closely matched cars and the soft tyre was good to run the full race without adverse deg. So why in the world would anyone in their right mind take such a risk of pitting a car in a sure and relatively safe winning position.
There is serious doubt that this was an error.

[Mark]

Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence.

[Nitrodaze]

I have to agree that Monaco was the worst display of stewardship seen in a long time. The punishment of Alonso was harsh and unfair, partly because they failed to punish Ricciado for a similar incident. I think they were abit heavy handed on Vesterpen for a racing incident which he was the only casualty.

The Toro Rosso team were very disappointing this weekend. They have consistently failed to deliver a good service to Vesterpen, which have cost the team and driver close to 2 digit points. Max was likely to finish in the top 6 this weekend with the right service and support. Toro Rosso are doing a really bad job of nurturing this quite obvious prodigious talent.

[Nitrodaze]

Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence.

This would apply if evidence of capability of such magnitude of incompetence can be proven. Mercedes don't make this sort of mistakes.

[The Black Knight]

I am finding it hard to believe they made an error. I think they wanted the result. With commentators speechless that they brought Lewis in from what seemed like a safe win position to change tyres with 10 laps to go, seemed an unbelievable error, especially for a meticulous team like mercedes. Hamilton was in no real threat from Vettel, especially if Vettel had pitted for fresh tyres which would have put him a few places back from 2nd position, probably behind Kvyat or Kimi. Overtaking being nearly impossible in Monaco between closely matched cars and the soft tyre was good to run the full race without adverse deg. So why in the world would anyone in their right mind take such a risk of pitting a car in a sure and relatively safe winning position.
There is serious doubt that this was an error.

While it is easy to jump on the conspiracy bandwagon, and I'd be the first to do so if I thought there was a one, I think this was a pure simple case of complete and utter brain fart. I still can't believe what we saw. It's the worst team decision I've ever witnessed in F1.

Can anyone think of something so outrageously stupid that matches this?

As for the Steward's I'm also going to nominate them for race donkey's as there was absolutely no consistency. Alonso got a penalty that he didn't deserve, Ricciardo didn't get a penalty which he did deserve and they penalize the wrong person for the Grosjean and Verstappen crash. Something has to be done about these stupid decisions that race Steward's are making. I think there's too much pull going on in F1 anyway. It's a small world and everyone knows everyone else. If the Steward's are too thick to see what is in front of them and read the data, then they should not be empowered to make these kind of decisions. There must be a better way than what they are doing now.