Mercedes acknowledges mistake in Mexican GP: 'We should have done that'

Mercedes had a competitive car at the Mexican Grand Prix, but the team made it difficult for itself by putting both drivers on the same strategy. That did not turn out to be the most favourable, the team itself realises.

Mercedes guessed wrong

In the race debrief from Mercedes James Vowles explains why the team chose to have both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton start on mediums, rather than the more aggressive start on softs as their rivals did. "Starting on the medium, which is a big difference to both Ferrari and Red Bull, that is sort of aggressive in many forms beacuse you're doing something very different to them," Vowles said.

"If the soft or the medium degrades more than you expect them to, one stop is just simply not possible anymore." In that case, a change from medium to hard, as Mercedes had envisaged, would have been the only way to get away with a one-stop. However, the softer compounds lasted much longer than the German racing stable thought possible.

That the team didn't choose to split the strategy between both drivers was a mistake, Vowles admits. "We should have, George should have started on the soft. What it would change, I'm not sure at this stage," said the Mercedes chief strategist.