New data proves Mercedes right: 'Then Hamilton would have lost more'

Mercedes were criticised after the Turkish Grand Prix, not least by Lewis Hamilton, for their strategic decision to bring the Brit in anyway. However, Andrew Shovlin now explains that the team had no other choice.

Where everyone else went in for a new set of intermediates, Hamilton stayed out. His team wanted to bring him in earlier, but the seven-time world champion thought it was better to stay out and finish the race on one set of tyres. However, towards the end of the race Mercedes saw that this went wrong.

Mercedes repairs the damage

''If the tyres stabilised at the moment we brought him in and remained consistent until the finish, we would have lost the spot to Sergio (Perez), but would have stayed ahead of Charles (Leclerc)on P4. But that scenario assumes no additional wear, while it was clear that the tyres were deteriorating,'' Shovlin told Motorsport.com.

''The calculation we could only do after the race was to take the degradation we saw with Esteban. He was the only one to finish the race on one set of inters. If we apply that degradation to Lewis, he would lose a lot of places, up to the back of the points. Based on that relegation he could even have ended up in a fight with Sainz (finished P8). ''You can't do that calculation live, because you're depending on information from the future,'' concludes Shovlin, who points out that in hindsight it would have been better if Hamilton had come in earlier.