The Dutch team leader Mercedes and driver Lewis Hamilton both believe the W14 is capable of helping them finish in the top 3, if they don't make a tactical mistake at the start of the Dutch Grand Prix.
Hamilton's W14 races on a wet track at Zandvoort during the Dutch Grand Prix main race on August 26. Photo: X / Lewis Hamilton
"We stood outside and waited too long. It was a completely wrong choice and a pity, because our car had very good speed," Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said after the race at Zandvoort on August 27.
Hamilton even insisted he was capable of competing with Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso - the two front-runners - at Zandvoort. "I'm not saying I could beat them, but if it weren't for some bad decisions, I think Mercedes could have kept up with the top two."
The Dutch Grand Prix was a tough one for Hamilton early in qualifying on the afternoon of August 26. He struggled to warm up his intermediate tyres, and was then held up by Yuki Tsunoda in the final lap of Q2. The Briton could only start 13th.
Last year at Zandvoort, Mercedes opted for a one-pit strategy, despite the two-pit strategy being predicted to be optimal. The German team’s choice worked well until the virtual safety car was deployed. Without the virtual safety car, Hamilton and teammate George Russell could have finished in the top two at the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix.
This year, Hamilton is planning to use a one-pit strategy: starting on medium tyres before switching to hard tyres for the rest of the race. The Briton is the only driver to choose medium tyres at the start. If nothing changes, Hamilton is likely to make a breakthrough.
Main events of the Dutch Grand Prix on August 27.
However, the complex reality of the main race made Mercedes' calculations useless. Signs of rain appeared before the race started, and accordingly, it would rain on the first lap. According to Mercedes' analysis, the rain was light and lasted only a few minutes. And so, the most effective strategy for the German team was to keep on dry weather tires despite the rain, thereby saving 2 pit stops, for a total time of about 40 seconds.
However, the rain was heavier and lasted longer than Mercedes had expected. It started at the end of the first lap at Turn 13 and Turn 14 and quickly covered the track. Some drivers, including Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly, decided to pit right then, before they even reached the pit entrance. This turned out to be the best option.
Other drivers like Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz pitted at the end of lap two, when the mechanics had time to prepare their tyres. This option would have cost around 16 seconds compared to the first lap. That’s just the difference in lap time between the soft and the intermediate tyres on lap two.
But even though it was slow, stopping on lap two turned out to be better than staying out on dry (non-grooved) tyres, as Oscar Piastri, Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg did. The three drivers’ choice, while saving a combined 40 seconds between the two pit stops, left them with a time difference of around 60 seconds between the two tyres by lap seven, when the weather had dried enough for the non-grooved tyres to work properly.
But the worst option is to pit for intermediates on lap three or later, adding 40 seconds to the time lost during the two pit stops plus the time lost during the non-grooved phase. Yet this is the choice of the two Mercedes drivers, and Lando Norris’ MCL60.
Hamilton runs on intermediate tyres on the Zandvoort track on August 26. Photo: AFP
With this choice, Hamilton dropped to the bottom, but the British driver still struggled to climb into the middle group and then close in on Carlons Sainz to compete for 5th place. However, the rain at the end of the race made things difficult for Hamilton when the DRS wing was not allowed to be used for safety. This disadvantage made it impossible for the Mercedes driver to try to overtake his opponent on the very short straights at Zandvoort.
A sixth-place finish was clearly a result that left Hamilton and the entire Mercedes team unhappy. "We saw at the end of the race that George had the same pace as Max, and Lewis was very strong behind Sainz. We could have gone further. I'm sad because the result was really bad. What happened today was very unpredictable. We will look at everything carefully," added Toto Wolf.
Minh Phuong
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