Lewis Hamilton put himself on the brink of a sixth world title with a masterful Mexico win as the Hard tyres proved far more durable than anyone expected. Motorsport Week takes a look at how the Mexican Grand Prix was won.
In the build-up to Formula 1’s Mexican Grand Prix Hamilton had repeatedly talked down Mercedes’ prospects of success at the event. After domination in 2015 and 2016 the regulation changes had transported Mexico City into one of Mercedes’ weakest circuits. In 2017 and 2018 Mercedes missed out on pole position, and despite Hamilton claiming the crown on both occasions it was a subdued race in the circumstances. In 2017 he was skewered by first-lap contact, coming ninth, while fourth was the best he could muster last season amid excessive tyre wear. Mercedes’ pace through Friday and Saturday confirmed its fears, with the team third-best, albeit closer to the ultimate performance level in qualifying that had perhaps been anticipated.
Prior to the race the general consensus was that a two-stop strategy was likely to be favoured. This was due to the level of graining encountered across Friday and Saturday, with degradation and wear accentuated by the nature of the circuit layout and its location. The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez has heavy braking zones, areas where strong traction is required, and a sequence of fast corners through which drivers slide more than usual due to the loss of downforce 2,200 metres above sea level. On the grid Pirelli chief Mario Isola reiterated a two-stop strategy was likely but pondered that the warmer temperatures on race day would reduce the graining risk, reckoning someone would gamble on a one-stopper. What he would not have predicted was all of the podium finishers stopping just once.
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The front-runners all shirked the Soft tyre, starting on the Mediums, but a conventional two-stop was deemed the wisest choice. Third-placed Alexander Albon triggered the pit stop phase on lap 15 of 71, exchanging Mediums for Mediums and thus committing to a two-stopper, while Ferrari responded a lap later by bringing in pole sitter and early leader Charles Leclerc, matching Albon’s strategy. But Sebastian Vettel, Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas all stayed out. Hamilton came in on lap 23 and switched to Hards, signalling that Mercedes reckoned it could run through to the chequered flag. It would mean a 47-lap stint on Hards. Was that possible? Hamilton voiced his doubts several times, despite reassurance from stand-in race engineer Marcus Dudley, and was so anguished that lead strategist James Vowles made a rare appearance over the airwaves to assert his view that Mercedes would win the race. Ferrari had responded to Hamilton’s stop by requesting Vettel to pit but as Hamilton’s out-lap developed realised that they would be undercut. Far better, they reasoned, to extend the stint as far as possible in order to give Vettel fresher tyres for an assault during the closing stages. It was a fine theory, with Vettel coming in on lap 37, responding to Bottas’ stop the previous lap. Of encouragement to Mercedes at this stage was that Daniel Ricciardo, who had started on Hards, had yet to come into the pits, with his pace still strong…
Vettel's sole stop gave the two-stopping Leclerc a brief spell in the lead but, condemned to needing to pit again, he eventually re-joined the action fourth, hurt further by a slow services. The stage was set for a thrilling denouement: Hamilton trying to nurse his tyres to the flag, chased by Vettel, who was being shadowed by Bottas, and who in turn was being reeled in rapidly by Leclerc. Only such was the durability of the Hard tyre that the expected differential never showed through. The quartet were all showing similar pace and while the gaps ebbed and flowed as they negotiated lapped cars, there was never a battle. Hamilton crossed the line 1.7s clear of Vettel, with Bottas and Leclerc following suit.
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For Hamilton it was an unexpected triumph that proved the power of team work and a supreme talent behind the wheel. Hamilton had dropped to fifth after a messy opening first lap, in which he had to back off to avoid a “big collision” with Vettel, which left him exposed to Max Verstappen, with whom he clashed through Turn 2, sustaining floor damage in the process. But he kept his head down, fought back, and masterfully executed the strategy.
“The rear end was quite weak so I was particularly sliding around a lot in the high-speed, so I had to change my settings quite a lot and had to drive it a little bit differently because I couldn’t attack the same way on the entry of corners because the rear stability wasn’t the same,” said Hamilton, who also had a dig at Verstappen, commenting that “it’s very likely you’re going to come together with Max if you don’t give him extra space, so most of the time you do.”
Hamilton’s weekend had also been complicated by the absence of long-time race engineer Pete Bonnington, who has been the reassuring voice in his ear since moving to Mercedes in 2013. Hamilton had involved Bonnington in meetings and decisions through the weekend and was full of praise for the manner in which the restructured crew operated.
“Knowing Bono wasn’t coming, I’m thinking, Jeez, in this intense fight for this championship… you could look at it as a disadvantage but me and Bono pulled together – he did a huge amount of work as did Marcus and Dom [Riefstahl] who’ve both stepped up into new roles,” explained Hamilton.
“I’ve never worked so closely with Dom before and Marcus stepped into big shoes. It’s not easy to work alongside… I would say a World Champion in this sport, who generally demand quite a lot but because I have experienced him as my number two he kind of knew how it worked and he’s generally a very laid back individual. And then on top of that, Bono was on the radio, we were texting all weekend and I really just wanted to make him very proud this weekend. He’s devoted so much of his life to me for these seven years so yeah, I really wanted to do… I’m sure he’s happy with the race.”
Hamilton’s performance was backed up by team-mate Bottas, who rebounded excellently from his Q3 crash, which resulted in Mercedes making a magnitude of changes on his W10, the full details of which read like a weekly shopping list. It meant Mercedes captured a 1-3 finish from a 3-6 grid position, and for the third successive event it triumphed in spite of Ferrari locking out the front row of the grid.
In Russia Ferrari was the unintentional architect of its own downfall, in Japan its drivers erred on a crucial first lap, so what was the problem in Mexico? It was fairly simple. Not only was Mercedes much closer – or perhaps quicker – in race trim, but in being the hunter rather than the hunted the Silver Arrows could take a gamble, and it was one which ultimately paid off.
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“Obviously, you know, we were one and two and the two-stop looked like the better strategy and faster strategy so we split the cars, and obviously if you go for the one-stop, you might as well go for the one stop properly and not, sort-of, half-hearted,” said Vettel.
“When Lewis pitted, I think it was borderline and probably a bit too early but, as he said, he made the tyres last well and had enough towards the end.
“You can argue maybe we could have taken more risk – but at that point you’re really driving into the unknown. I think what they tried to do is fit the Hard, see if it makes it. If it doesn’t make it, you might as well fit another set at the end and there’s your two stops. When you are sitting in P3 and then having the option to finish, maybe, first or fifth. I think you may as well try. I think we tried everything. You have to give it to Lewis, he drove well, he made the tyres last and I think Mercedes in the race was maybe just a little bit quicker than us.”
Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto concurred that “we realised only very late” regarding the durability of the Hard tyres.
“When Charles stopped, for us it was still too early to gamble on the one stop, it would have been too risky, not only for tyre degradation but for tyre wear as well, you can look and analyse at the data.
“Certainly the gamble Mercedes did was the right gamble, they took some risks to win and I think the risks went to their merit, that’s the way it is. Maybe we should have taken more risks – it’s difficult to judge, after the result it’s easy to say yes.”
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Leclerc maturely stomached another race in which pole position has been squandered.
“Well I am disappointed, of course, every time you start first you always want to win and the two last times I started first I didn’t win so I’m not happy with that,” he reflected. “I think it’s pretty clear why and we will learn from this. But to be completely honest we wanted to cover from Albon, which we did, and then from then on I think it was very difficult to do better because with the two stop it was very difficult to stay behind the cars and to overtake at the end even with a very good pit stop.”
The outcome of the weekend left an unusual disparity between qualifying and race results regarding the leading two teams in 2019. Ferrari has nine poles to Mercedes’ eight, but come Sunday afternoon Mercedes has celebrated victory on 13 occasions compared to Ferrari’s paltry trio.
But for Ferrari there were still positives to be drawn from the weekend, with Binotto keen to highlight the team’s improvement since the summer break.
“I think overall as a team we should be happy for the weekend, we earned another pole, I think we got a good pace in the race, on a type of circuit like Mexico which is similar to Hungary where you need maximum performance,” he emphasised.
“That has simply shown we’ve done improvements since then, great improvements.
“We are there to fight and battle for the win which was not the case in Hungary.
“Going to Austin that no doubt our objective is to win and we have all the opportunity and possibility to do it. Let’s try now at least to start on pole and win and not start on pole and not win, so I’m pretty sure that’s something we are hoping, and I’m pretty sure we can do it yes.”
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