F1 News
'If Max hadn't done that, Hamilton would have had a much bigger chance'
- GPblog.com
Red Bull Racing chose a very aggressive strategy during the United States Grand Prix. Max Verstappen made sure this strategy worked after a poor start in comparison to his rival and in the end won from Lewis Hamilton. Mark Hughes points out a crucial moment.
Red Bull very aggressive
There was no question that COTA was going to be a two-stop race. Tyre wear was too fast for the race to be completed in two stints. Although Verstappen seemed to have a good pace for the first ten laps behind Hamilton, the Dutchman went in early.
F1 journalist Hughes sees the risk this took but praises the winner for his execution. On The-race.com he says: "Pitting Verstappen from just behind Hamilton on lap 10, before they’d even cleared Daniel Ricciardo’s fifth-place McLaren, let alone Charles Leclerc’s fourth-place Ferrari, from the pitstop ‘window’ was aggressive."
Verstappen ensured perfect execution
"Not only would Verstappen need to overtake the McLaren on the out-lap (which he did), and potentially the Ferrari too (it pitted out of the way, as it happened), but with 46 laps still to go it made the remaining two stints very long for a track which was imposing such high tyre degradation."
"If Verstappen had failed to do that, Hamilton’s chances of winning would have been greatly enhanced."
Hughes concludes this argument: "Ideally, you’d want to do a much longer first stint, minimise the remaining stint lengths, maximising the grip with newer tyres."