Just_a_fan wrote: ↑15 Jul 2019, 00:47
ispano6 wrote: ↑15 Jul 2019, 00:28
They could have gone medium - hard from the outset. Going medium medium soft was always going to be a stretch. You doom the driver to a second stop.
Btw, who makes the call at Mercedes for who pits first?
Bottas stated that he and his engineers decided to 2-stop. Hamilton and his engineers decided to split the strategy. Hamilton's engineers got it right this time.
Mercedes give first stop priority to the leading of the two drivers.
Mercedes did not ruin Bottas's race with their strategy, the safety car did that.
Safety car didnt' ruin his strategy in reality. He wanted to two stop, Hamilton was actually faster despite keeping his tires going for longer. Bottas has tire wear issues anywhere with almost any level of tire wear. Currently the only reason he's somewhat competitive with Ham at some tracks are low deg tires.
As soon as Bottas pitted onto a one stop and wasn't able to make significant inroads Ham is 17 seconds ahead and about to stop for hards anyway. Even if he comes out just behind Bottas we know he's faster anyway and he doesn't need to stop again. Bottas has to stop again so will likely pit a second time and be at best a full pitstop behind Ham, at worst Ham passes him before that stop.
So in reality the safety car actually allowed Bottas the chance to switch to what was plainly a better one stop, put on hards and then close the gap under safety car. SO without safety car his second pitstop was going to drop him 20 seconds behin Ham(if he stays ahead over the stint), with the safety car he could switch to the one stop then close that gap under safety car. Yes he'd have Vettel between him and Ham but with that much of a faster car even Bottas should only take a few laps to get past. Safety car could have saved him call it ~15 seconds. Why Merc didn't pit him I don't know but again lets be honest, while Ham was all over Bottas on the same tire, Bottas on what 7-8 lap old mediums at the restart couldn't get within DRS of Ham. If someone stays within DRS and can't pull away, guy behind is faster, if guy ahead easily stays out of DRS, he's controlling the pace, shown even more when he does fastest lap on the final lap on 32 lap old hards when his team mate is slower on brand new softs.
So, Bottas was done by his two stop strategy, safety car could have helped him out, terrible choice not to come in which without Vettel/Verstappen crash, could have cost him a podium.