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.

[Bagwan]

Let me correct you on this
Hamilton never asked for a stop he only explained the condition of his tires to the team, who failed to relay any proper information to him.
He was then asked to pit in a joke of a decision. He probably said the same things that vettel and rosberg, kimi, kvyatt and ricciardo relayed to the team,
the only difference is that the mercedes folks stupidly were the only ones to pit the leading car and lose the race

Split hairs .
He was worried and wanted to stop .

[Bagwan]

To those who call for heads to roll , or for some sort of payback for Lewis , no offence intended , maybe should listen to the man as he toes the line .
"We win and lose as a team ."
He got that exactly right .

Mind you , in direct reference to that , and how much truth there is in it , he didn't much celebrate the win or the third with the team , as if they were wholly at fault .

[rjbetty]

As for his sulky stopping at the tunnel entrance , and his slow parking and knocking of the third sign , and his no champagne spray , I see him as still pretty fragile , in a time where until now he's been showing a reasonably serene , "in control" demeanor .

Ugh so even that is being held against him! There is simply no pleasing some people (as you realise they don't want to be pleased). So how do you find Nico's behaviour after China then?

I would have been happier to see him declare how desperately stupid lucky Nico was , and that he'd better not expect that kind of gift again .

I'd rather see a declaration of the fight rather than a pout about the last battle .

I think he would have been torn a new one on here and everywhere in internetland if he did that. I'm glad he reacted the way he did, pausing at Portier to gather his thoughts. I find Lewis to be one of the most "real" people in the business and respect him for this.

SMH

[Tazio]

People here (and there) keep talking about some "Boss". .

It is just a nic-name I use for Lewis Hamilton, I didn't originate it, and it's been used for others. All the nic-names I use are meant to be terms of endearment, even if they don't conjure up positive images for everyone that reads them, and conversely the ones that sound ultra-patronizing are really not meant to be "all that". Now when I use the wink emoticon that means I am being (at least a little) facetious, like I was when I quoted Firstgear on this thread. I think that probably less than 1/2 of the crap I post on this forum is even based in reality, so in case you are, please don't take me too seriously, because I certainly do not.

I´m sure Alonso got die hard fans, I know it for a fact,

Of course he does, he is very popular, and I wish I was fluent in Spanish, because I would tear some of those fans a new one wherever it is that they congregate. Hell they may be bigger idiots than your average Italian, although that would really take some doing.

bossen

bossen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suXXVS7cqJw

[Mia 01]

Thanks for the explanation Tazio! You made my day a bit brighter.

[Big Ben]

I hope, for all those depressed by what happened, that Mercedes and Hamilton will learn a thing or two from this disaster. Hamilton could learn to bitch and moan about the tires properly or Mercedes could learn not to take him that seriously. They should think about the consequences. If hamilton doesn't win the wdc by august... I mean, is such a life worth living?

[Duncan]

No offense to anyone, but declaring from an armchair what someone should or should have done under those circumstances is a bit presumptuous, IMO. Looking back over my memory banks at things said and done by Mansell, Senna, Prost and Schumacher (among others), if what Lewis did on Sunday represented fragility, then he seems to be in pretty good company. Hell, I've seen drivers break down and cry before in other series, under less harsh circumstances and not as big a reward at stake.

Not to mention:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpZnE7gj0gY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPOXvyOUA6Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1itUrFokDhs

[kfzmeister]

I'm making a shirt that shows a smiling Ross Brawn with the caption "Miss me, yet"?

[The Black Knight]

Let me correct you on this
Hamilton never asked for a stop he only explained the condition of his tires to the team, who failed to relay any proper information to him.
He was then asked to pit in a joke of a decision. He probably said the same things that vettel and rosberg, kimi, kvyatt and ricciardo relayed to the team,
the only difference is that the mercedes folks stupidly were the only ones to pit the leading car and lose the race

He knows this already, just likes to disagree for the sake of it.

No offense to anyone, but declaring from an armchair what someone should or should have done under those circumstances is a bit presumptuous, IMO. Looking back over my memory banks at things said and done by Mansell, Senna, Prost and Schumacher (among others), if what Lewis did on Sunday represented fragility, then he seems to be in pretty good company. Hell, I've seen drivers break down and cry before in other series, under less harsh circumstances and not as big a reward at stake.

Go to your daily job. Work on an important star-maker project for several weeks. Complete it successfully. And then let's see how you'd react if you learned that a member of management had goofed your presentation to the board, and your nemesis in the company got the promotion, even though his project was something a fresh out of school grad student could have done. He did what he did. And I'm certainly not going to be critical of him for his actions. He didn't kick anything. He didn't break anything (I'm sure that 3rd place sign will live to fight another day). And most of all, he didn't throw the team under the bus. To me, that is the big one that really surprised me. I don't think there are very many sportsmen (or people in the corporate world - that one I know for sure) who wouldn't have done that. And I suspect that is what made Toto Wolff breathe a sigh of relief. He could have easily found himself trying to explain to the media how he would be dealing with harsh, publicly spoken words launched against the team by Hamilton.

I imagine/pretty well know that he was emotionally crushed in that moment. And knowing that he's no more emotionally super-human than anyone else out there, his reaction was about as good as I would expect from anyone. I would say that whether it was Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso or anybody else. In the past, all three of those gentlemen have put their respective teams under the bus. In this case, Lewis didn't do that. So good on him. This is certainly not the same guy who pulled a brat move by tweeting telemetry data to prove that his team was clueless.

The potential damage that I see has to do with the Mercedes team. As a driver, it would be difficult to convince oneself that information or advice given in the future, under similar high pressure circumstances, would be entirely accurate. That trust has certainly been violated. And I'd say that will be hard to overcome.

Great post.