Mercedes: 'Not enough tyre degradation for Hamilton's third stop'

While last weekend's race at Zandvoort wasn't a spectacle, the strategic battle between Mercedes and Red Bull was the main issue afterwards. Shouldn't Mercedes have brought Lewis Hamlton in for a stop on softs twenty laps before the end of the race, in order to repeat a scenario from Barcelona earlier this year?

In the Mercedes race debrief on YouTube, Andrew Shovlin says that an earlier third stop was not possible. This was mainly to do with the tyres and how fast the degradation was.

"The reality during this race was that many drivers did a one-stop, which requires a lot of management of the tyres. Verstappen and Hamilton were also pushing a lot more to maintain their position. They were on a two-stopper. When you make the extra stop to softs, we don't think there is enough degradation of the tyres to make up for the extra twenty seconds in the pits. So a third stop would not have worked. When you make that third stop with Hamilton with twenty laps left, you fall away and you don't come back into the fight for first place."

Mercedes happy with reception from Dutch fans

A large part of the build up to the Dutch Garnd Prix was how Mercedes and especially Lewis Hamilton, be received in Zandvoort? It all turned out to be respectful and neat during the weekend, though, and Shovlin saw thankful for this.

"If we had to describe the weekend in one word, it would be simple: orange. I've never seen so much orange in one place. Thank you to all the Dutch fans for the welcome we received. They made us feel at home in the Netherlands and I'm glad it was a fantastic race weekend."

In Monza, Mercedes will hope to run further ahead in the battle for the Constructors' Championship. In addition, Hamilton will be looking to retake the lead from Verstappen in the battle for the Drivers' Championship in Italy.