Mercedes' "enormous risk" paid off in Baku

During qualifying at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix Mercedes pulled off a risky move which enabled them to get pole position. Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas headed out onto the track early on in Q3 but then did a practise start meaning that they got a tow from the cars that had followed them out onto the track. 

Mercedes motorsport strategy director James Vowles admitted that it was a risky move, but it paid off. 

“Over the last few races you’ve been seeing what we would call almost a Mexican stand-off in the pit lane,” Vowles told Mercedes’ YouTube channel. “Everyone has their engines fired up and everyone’s looking at each other. But who’s going to go first to go out on track? They will be the car that effectively leads others and creates the tow.

“In Shanghai you saw that we left very late and other cars weren’t even able to do their lap because they were so keen on getting the tow that the flag came before they started their lap. In Baku we were very conscious that this effect could well dictate whether we were on pole or not .

“What we decided to do, therefore, was to send our cars out a little bit earlier which would pull the whole train of cars behind us. That worked. And then do a practice start on the left-hand side, simply so that we did not end up at the front of the queue, because we felt the effect was so powerful.

“This was taking an enormous risk. We only crossed the line several seconds before the flag as a result of this. But in this situation it worked. We pulled over to the left-hand side, other cars came past, Vettel led the pack and didn’t have a tow on this particular occasion, allowing our cars to get into a nice position behind competitors and benefit both from a tow and a good track position.”