Villeneuve critical of Mercedes: 'Look at television for once'

Jacques Villeneuve doesn't understand anything about Mercedes' tactics. In his column for Formule1.nl the 1997 world champion lashes out at the German team.

It was clear that the team had made the wrong choice of strategy. By starting on the medium tyre, it took a conservative approach, which ultimately allowed Max Verstappen to drive to victory fairly easily.

Mercedes takes no risk

For Mercedes, the situation is also still relatively new. Villeneuve, for instance, describes that, as a top team, Mercedes have had to take few strategic risks in recent years. The team always had the best car, so things would work out on Sunday anyway. Now defensive tactics stand out and with that, you won't win races if you don't have the best car. You will have to take risks.

George Russell asked for another strategy during the race. The young Briton wanted to continue longer on his medium tyre before switching to the soft tyre at the end. For Daniel Ricciardo, this strategy worked well, but Mercedes apparently did not dare to take the gamble. ''Everyone could see what Ricciardo did on the mediums, which was clearly the right compound. Maybe the Mercedes team should also just watch television instead of looking at all their computers,'' the Canadian stated.

With only the Brazil and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix remaining on the calendar, Mercedes has just two chances left to take its first victory in 2022. Should they fail to do so, and there is quite a chance of that, Mercedes will go winless in an F1 season for the first time since 2011. For Lewis Hamilton, that would even mean not winning a race for the first time in his F1 career.