Mercedes balks: 'We already knew that soft/medium one-stop could work'

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton showed on Saturday in Mexico that Mercedes was the challenger for victory in Mexico. On Sunday, the team decided to start on the yellow medium tyres to "be sure" of an easy one-stop. Rivals Verstappen and Sergio Perez started on the red soft tyre, which was expected to require a two-stop. However, this turned out differently during the race.

Mercedes knew other strategy was workable

Shovlin is in great awe of his team, but has to conclude with regret that even with everyone in the team giving their all, it is still not possible for Mercedes to take a win this year. Shovlin continued in a press release from his team: "If we were to do the race again, we would have started with the soft tyre. We knew a one-stop change from soft to medium was possible, but we didn't expect it to be so comfortable." Mercedes' strategists assumed that the medium tyres (at Red Bull) would lose grip faster.

Shovlin does take many positives with him from Mexico. The improvements that were taken to the United States and refined in Mexico appear to be working. There has been a clear step forward by the team, which means they now have the prospect of finishing second to Ferrari in the constructors' championship. Shovlin: "We have closed the gap to Ferrari and we will continue to chase them until the flag drops in Abu Dhabi. We still have two races to go and there is plenty of work to do."