The Monaco Grand Prix took place in treacherous conditions last weekend. After rain set in shortly before the scheduled start of the race, the drivers had to contend with a wet track that was slowly drying off after the final start. The fact that the asphalt kept getting drier during the race presented the teams with a strategic choice: either continue to use rain tires and immediately switch to slicks, or switch to intermediates in between. Mercedes decided to split the strategies, with George Russell immediately switching to slicks while teammate Lewis Hamilton switched to the intermediates. andrew shovlin, Trackside Technical Director of the team, explains why this particular choice was made.
“Actually, it was all about the cars around them and what their situation was like in the race. George would have lost two places if he went to intermediates and in Monaco you don’t want to lose those places because there’s no way you can get them back if you can’t get past them,” said Shovlin. “We really didn’t have anything for Lewis We saw that the Alpines would try to go straight to slicks with Alonso so we went for it.It all depended on Lewis being able to regain the position he had given Esteban [Ocon] lost and if there was anything to be gained by betting faster times on the intermediates. All in all it came down to the different situations of both cars and who would lose the most with the extra stop.”
Mercedes opted to pit Hamilton for a number of intermediate laps on lap 15, putting him behind Esteban Ocon and having to engage in a very solid duel with the Frenchman. At this point, Pierre Gasly had already completed around ten laps on intermediates, but Shovlin and Mercedes knew that they would have to wait a bit before making their own switch. “It was all about what happened behind Lewis on the track. He never had a clear window for his stop. If that had been the case, we would certainly have gotten him sooner. We knew the Intermediate would do well. The question is: can a car on intermediate stages pass a car on the wet? When we finally tried that with Lewis, we saw in the duel with Esteban that it was very difficult.”
