Mercedes explains choice: "With Lewis, we really had nothing to lose"

The Monaco Grand Prix was decided by strategic choices. Not only upfront but also in the midfield. Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were both on a different strategy, with Russell skipping the intermediates step. Andrew Shovlin, trackside engineering director at Mercedes, explains why.

He also elaborates on the decision not to bring Hamilton in earlier, given Pierre Gasly's good lap times on intermediates. "It was all about what was happening behind Lewis," Shovlin begins his explanation in a youtube video from Mercedes. "He didn't have a clear pit stop window, if he had we would definitely have done it earlier."

He added that it was clear that the intermediates worked well, but not whether a car on intermediates would be able to overtake a car on rain tires. Gasly demonstrated with some overtaking that it could, but Hamilton had great difficulty later in the race with the Alpine of Esteban Ocon in front of him.

Different strategies at Mercedes

Shovlin also explains why Hamilton and Russell were on different strategies. Hamilton first changed to intermediates before moving to slicks, while Russell immediately changed from rain tires to slicks.

Again, according to the Mercedes chief, this was due to the track conditions. "If George had done that [changed to intermediates] he would have lost two places and in Monaco, you don't want that," he explained. "With Lewis we really had nothing to lose, because we could see that Alpine wanted to try and get through," he adds.

Alonso and Ocon were among the drivers who changed from rain tires directly to slicks. At this Mercedes decided to bring Hamilton in, hoping to regain his lost position to Ocon, which he eventually did. However, he struggled to get past Alonso, who held on to his position despite his slower pace.