Mercedes strategy of the Race - Monaco

[Nitrodaze]

No offense to anyone, but declaring from an armchair what someone should or should have done under those circumstances is a bit presumptuous, IMO.

Sorry buddy, this is not presumptious at all as there is no precedent for this error. It is the first ever in modern F1. To breakdown is bad luck and unavoidable. A bad call is bad luck which was obvious to everyone was quite avoidable. Vettel was no threat if he had pitted for new boots. Tyre were good for full race and it was less than 10 laps to the end of the race. Staying out was less risky than pitting because overtaking in Monaco was at best very difficult. If Vettel had pitted, he would have ended up behind Kimi or Ricciado which implies that he would needed to pass 4 or 5 cars to win within less than 10 laps. As it turned out racing commenced with 6 laps to go. That l believe to be impossible at Monaco. Pitting had its own inherent risks, due to the human element which is unpredictable under pressure; the mechanical element of wheel nuts not coming off or going back on easily and burning valuable time. Possible driver overshooting the box which could burn the very marginal half a second advantage available.

These guys are suppose to be one of the best in the game, hence this is not your garden variety error, this is a giant neon sign level eff up or premeditated. I shall go with GIANT EFF UP for obvious reasons.

The reason the Mercedes pit wall is being criticized is because the level of risk analysis performed was casual and lacked evidence of the appreciation of the cost to Hamilton's championship status should pitting go wrong. This is the very reason which leads some to think it may have been premeditated to bring it about.