Toto Wolff admits Mercedes « made a mistake » with Lewis Hamilton’s pit call
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has admitted that "we completely misunderstood the message" after Lewis Hamilton's pit stop at the Monaco Grand Prix, when he was trying to get ahead of Max Verstappen.
Max Verstappen finished sixth, one place ahead of Lewis Hamilton, in a race determined by tire management, while the top 10 on the grid remained in the same order. The two drivers were trying to preserve the medium tires they had chosen under red flag conditions on the first lap, Mercedes was the first to bring the seven-time world champion Hamilton into the pits on the 51st lap of the race.
The leading quartet composed of Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris all started on the medium tires and switched to the more durable hard tires under the red flag, which could comfortably last until the end.
The British driver did not receive a critical exit message and returned to the track behind Verstappen when Red Bull pitted him one lap later, which pushed a frustrated Hamilton to ask: Why didn’t you tell me the exit lap was critical?
Wolff spoke after the race: « It was first a bad communication between us on the pit wall, we got it wrong. It should have been a critical out lap, we tried to achieve an undercut. But then, there was a discussion about whether any out lap would suffice with the new tires. The message he received was at best confusing, but probably wrong. In summary, a bad message to Lewis, it was the team’s fault. »
Mercedes’ strategy for Lewis was to create a gap with Yuki Tsunoda (8th) behind and to try to get closer to Max Verstappen (6th). Due to the team’s poor communication, Hamilton remains in seventh place in the Monaco Grand Prix . Wolff admitted that as soon as the accident happened [on the first lap], it was clear that we were really disadvantaged and thinks there was little Mercedes could have done to change the course of his race. I don’t think there’s much you can change in Monaco, he said. You end up pretty much where you start.
George Russell chose not to stop and continued until the finish with the medium tires he had taken under the red flag, triggered by the collision between Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen, the Briton finally managing to resist the pressure from Max Verstappen to finish fifth.
