Smart move by Mercedes: "Caught Red Bull completely off guard"
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Lewis Hamilton beat his rival Max Verstappen at the Brazilian Grand Prix. The Briton started the race from tenth position, but then quickly managed to get into the top three. According to Peter Windsor, the moments of the pit stops contributed to the victory.
Mercedes was determined to close the gap in the world championship on Sunday night. The German racing team therefore decided to place an undercut, with which it had to build up an advantage over Red Bull Racing.
"That caught Red Bull completely off guard because they were under the impression or belief that the undercut was very powerful at Interlagos," states Windsor on his YouTube channel. "As a result, Lewis got even nearer by the time they've both done their stops."
Red Bull undercut didn't help
Verstappen then told his team that he didn't want another undercut by Hamilton, which led to him coming in earlier on his second stop. Windsor saw that as a defining moment. "When he came in his tires were three laps fresher. That was going to be quite a significant advantage going into the back end of this race. So you've got to say at this point really good move by Mercedes."