F1 News
'Even with the same pit stop strategy Mercedes couldn't have won'
- GPblog.com
Max Verstappen won the second GP at Silverstone gloriously due to the strategy his team already put into action during Q2 on Saturday. It was the first time this season Mercedes cracked by another team. In hindsight it turns out that it wasn't just Red Bull's strategy that delivered the victory.
Mercedes was too slow
Auto Motor und Sport asks itself: 'Could Mercedes have won?' The short answer is: 'No'. Even if Mercedes had used the same strategy as Verstappen did, they wouldn't have passed the Dutchman because they simply didn't have the pace that Red Bull somehow found.
'The pit stops had nothing to do with it, Mercedes was just too slow', writes the German news outlet. 'It is still being investigated but at least it couldn't have been due to the car. On Saturday they were 0.928 seconds faster'.
Tire management and heat troubled Mercedes
During the first race at Silverstone it already became clear that the dominant Mercedes had a weak spot and that they could possibly be broken. 'Hamilton finished with a tricycle. Verstappen followed only 5.8 seconds, he handled his tyres a lot better'.
'A week later there were even bigger hurdles for Mercedes on the road. The asphalt was four degrees warmer, the tyres were softer and the tyre pressure was two PSI higher in the front and one PSI higher in the rear'. Verstappen struck at just the right moment and won the race.