Mercedes were ‘not convinced’ Hamilton’s tyres would last

The Mercedes Formula 1 team was “not convinced” Lewis Hamilton’s tyres would make it to the end of the Mexican Grand Prix after taking a bold strategy gamble.

Hamilton expertly managed ageing tyres on a one-stop strategy to hold off Sebastian Vettel’s charging Ferrari and claim an unexpected victory for Mercedes in Mexico City, having started third on the grid.

The Briton’s Hard tyres were 13 laps older than Vettel’s after Hamilton pitted much earlier in the race. Despite Hamilton’s concerns over team radio that his tyres would hit the cliff and not make the distance, he held on to record a brilliant win.

“We were not convinced [the tyres would last],” Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said.

“So there were two main factors. One is that we knew that we had to take a risk, when you’re starting third and sixth.

“It’s easier to come up with some bold strategies, provided you have a good car, which we had, and fantastic drivers.

"We knew we need to do something different. And then we saw Ricciardo going long on the hard tyre. I think he had done 30-odd laps, and was posting green lap times.

“And then we had quite some discussion, and at the end, what [Mercedes chief strategist] James [Vowles] and his strategy partner opted for, to go long for 47 laps, worked out.”

Asked if he had faith in Hamilton to be able to pull off the strategy, Wolff replied: “I have complete faith in him.

“But we knew it was going to be stretched, and even the best driver needs to rely on the material.

“47 laps sounded like almost impossible, but then when you look at the data of the first stint, and [Daniel] Ricciardo and Max going strong, it kind of made sense. Still, visualising 47 laps sounded like an awful lot of laps.

“We thought that a two-stop could have been the main gameplan at the beginning,” he added. "But in the first stint, the tyres behaved so well and held on so much better than expected, so pretty early on in the race, we switched to a one-stop.

“We were quite surprised to see [Charles] Leclerc committing so early to a two-stop, so Vettel was more of a worry for us.”

Hamilton’s 10th victory of the season has moved him to the brink of sealing a sixth drivers’ world title. He now leads Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas by 74 points and will wrap up the world championship if he scores four points at next weekend’s United States Grand Prix.