Critical analysis

Mercedes admits: “That was a mistake!”

Not everything went according to plan for Mercedes at the Singapore GP.

(Bild: Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Lewis Hamilton only finished sixth from third on the grid in Singapore. There was a critical analysis at Mercedes. "We shouldn't have started on the soft tires. That was a mistake," admitted Mercedes technical director James Allison.

Hamilton had already voiced his criticism at a sponsor event earlier in the week. "We sat in our meeting on the morning of the race, they had actually mentioned the night before that they wanted to split the cars." In other words, to have both cars drive with different starting tires. Hamilton continued: "I was a bit perplexed. Because in the past, if we've ever been in this position... Normally when George has qualified well, as he normally does, and I'm not in the top 10, then we've split the strategies, but we were so close. It didn't make sense to me."

Lewis Hamilton

(Bild: AFP or licensors)

"That was a mistake"
The realization of the wrong strategy is now also admitted by the racing team in the person of technical director James Allison: "We shouldn't have started on the soft tires. That was a mistake. If we could turn back the clock, we would do like the others and choose the medium tires."

(Bild: APA/AFP/Lillian SUWANRUMPHA)

Allison explains: "The thinking was that with the soft tire you very often get away from the start abruptly and have a good chance of making up one or two places in the first few laps of the race. Before the race, we didn't really expect to encounter such difficulties with the soft tire. So we thought we would be able to use the advantages of the soft tire to make up one or two places."

The plan didn't work out. "That wasn't the case because the starts just didn't go our way," said Allison. "And then we hoped that the disadvantages of the slightly more sensitive soft tires would not really have a negative effect, because overall the pace in a race in Singapore is very, very low at the beginning, and the drivers then increase the pace over many, many laps, so a soft tire can hold up quite well into the pit stop phase."

Technical Director James Allison

(Bild: GEPA )

In the end, Hamilton came into the pits early and had the hard tires fitted. According to Allison, they had a fresh medium "in the cupboard" in case of a safety car. But it was the first Singapore race without a safety car.

All in all, it was a day to forget for Hamilton, who had hoped for much more from third place on the grid than he ended up with. His team-mate George Russell finished fourth. On October 20 (9 p.m.), the premier class will return to Austin (USA) for the next race.