Lot to read but trust me you will be suprised
Not exactly, notice how in the Turn 10 hairpin, Vettel gained more time, even though Mercedes are meant to be faster in the slow corners like Monaco. It shows the differing energy deployment strategy, (Also Ferrari starting to understand their car.) By turn 10 Hamilton used up most of his energy, and around that corner Vettel could use the power from the deployment and traction. You can cleary see Hamilton in 0.44 in that video bring down the Engine Braking setting. This provides more power for the driver to brake thus more energy recovered. It's always been the case with Hamilton, he uses most of the deployment in and out of corners and relies on engine power in the straights.
(There is also a weird theory that since 2016 Mercedes Hotlap mode enables the engine braking system(Which is part of the Mgu-h and Mgu-k system) to "cut power" and use the engine to slow down when off throttle like all engine braking system, but when the driver is back on it, there is a multiple step relay signal before it disables, so providing a mini traction control thus they can step the accelerator about 0.1 second earlier. They can't use it in the race cause the Differential will explode from the constant strain from the step signal from the engine braking.
Again just a theory, but this can also explain why Hamilton turns down the engine braking system. Because he clearly has the advantage in the first seven corners (We ignore 8 and 9 because Vettel gets on the yellow Kerbs which lost him time as he couldn't get on the throttle early, and so subsequently in the final two corners Vettel decides to stay away from them; there was at least 0.200 that he could have gained if he took Hamilton's line in the last two corners and did turn 9 properly). I mean simple maths says if he can press the accelerator 0.1 second earlier(That number is based on the 2013 Red Bull traction control rumor), then that's around 0.7 (not exactly true but you get the point) that's how much more deployment he is using compared to competition, thus running out by the time they come to turn 10 thus turning EB down to recover more energy, but by turning it down the traction control is lost making him much slower in the slower turn 10 than Ferrari. Again just a theory, no one freak out. (Take a listen to the Mercedes engine sound in the last few corners in Spain and compare it to the second last hairpin in China, i heard a difference but maybe not again just a theory, Rumours have it that Honda was the first to introduce the system thus the strange engine noise they have when they accelerate off corner. And Mercedes found out thanks to staff coming from McLaren in 2016 they figured out a smoother way to implement it, because of their split turbo design and with McLaren switching to Renault, Renault slowly begin understanding that, which is why they struggled with reliability throughout 2018 cause they found it harder to implement the system, and Ferrari has no clue cause they more secluded. And again just a theory don't come at me )
