Toto Wolff refused to admit that Mercedes did not pay attention to what Red Bull was doing on the track during the safety period.
The Austrian team called both the drivers to pits during the safety car laps to get them some fresh rubber, a move that ultimately helped Daniel Ricciardo win the race.
The team might have had a 1-2 finish if Max Verstappen had not spent time trying to overtake Lewis Hamilton and then try an ill-timed overtake on Sebastian Vettel, which ultimately caused a collision and landed him a 10-second penalty.
A similar strategy would have given Hamilton a podium and maybe even a race win since he was sandwiched between the Red Bulls during the safety car. But Mercedes wanted to preserve their track position so kept him out on his mediums.
Although the plan did not work, Wolff admitted they never even considered the idea of a second pitstop because data told them track position is more important than tyre performance.
“We thought at the time that track position would be more beneficial,” said Wolff.
“You could see in the first stint there was no overtaking. Lewis’ tyre was a medium at that stage, barely 10 laps on.
“Our calculation predicted that a medium would last until the end and putting on a new soft we thought wouldn’t give you such a performance advantage.
” [The advantage was] much more than we expected. Looking back, it would have been for sure the right strategy to do for the second soft – but nobody in the team, including myself, thought that it was the right thing to do.”
Wolff refused to accept that they were too focussed on Ferrari at that time and did not pay attention to the Red Bull trick as they had not anticipated a two-stopper race.
“The Ferraris and the Mercedes decided on the same strategy, we stayed out,” he said. “I don’t think it was a matter of focus, it was a matter of the quickest race. And that it was our simulations showed.
“I’m not sure if Red Bull was surprised by their own pace, but we were and everyone else was. In these conditions that was the right thing to do. It wasn’t on our radar.”
