Mercedes chief Toto Wolff says opting not to pit either Valtteri Bottas or Lewis Hamilton was the correct call at the British Grand Prix, despite Sebastian Vettel’s victory.
Vettel led Bottas when Marcus Ericsson’s crash triggered the deployment of the Safety Car on lap 33 of 52, while Hamilton was running in fifth position following his first-lap spin.
Mercedes kept both Bottas and Hamilton out on the Medium tyres they had switched to on laps 21 and 25 respectively, while Vettel, along with Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen, took on fresh Softs.
Bottas thus inherited the lead while Hamilton moved into third position; Bottas defended from Vettel but relinquished the advantage with six laps left, and also fell behind Hamilton.
Bottas subsequently dropped a further spot to Kimi Raikkonen, but Wolff backed the call to compete for the overall win.
“First of all I think it was absolutely the right decision to do,” said Wolff.
“There was 15 or 16 laps until the end with Mediums that would last. Gaining track position was the interesting one for us and that triggered our decision.
“I think that both strategies are valid. But doing the opposite was the choice we went for and at the end it brought us a P2 and P4.
“I think considering how the race started, we need to accept the result as an acceptable outcome with real damage limitation.”
Wolff added that he felt the Safety Car period came at the wrong moment for Bottas, who had reduced Vettel’s five-second lead down to just two seconds.
“In hindsight I think the Safety Car went against him,” said Wolff.
“Sebastian was managing the tyres already again, like on the first set of the Softs, you could see he was very fast at the beginning but then the tyre fell away.
“Maybe we would have had a chance at the end to attack with no Safety Car but it is two maybes. Maybe we would have had the chance and maybe not.”
Bottas and Hamilton also backed the decision, thought the Finn conceded that given the outcome of his race, mirroring Vettel would have led to a better result.
“I think without the Safety Car, of course it's only guessing, but at that point, just before when it came, it felt like our pace was quite strong compared to Ferrari,” said Bottas.
“I was closing on Sebastian, and we had an advantage at the end of the first stint. The second stint was going to be very long for both of us.
“We took the risk to stay out to try and win the race, because on-track it's always more difficult with a similar car.
“Honestly, at that point when we stayed out, if the team would have asked me if I wanted to try and go for the win or secure second place, for sure I would have gone for the win.
“But now looking back, for sure, the result would have been better stopping. That's a fact.”
Hamilton added: “For me, the guys pitted in front of me, that was an opportunity for me to get up into third. I think it was the right decision.
“If I’d followed them in I would have come out behind them, we’d have equal tyres and I would have struggled to get by them and most certainly wouldn’t have been second.
“These guys would have pulled away. So, I think it was 100 per cent the right decision, particularly on my car.”
