F1 News
Mercedes explains why they gave Lewis Hamilton the medium tyre in Monaco
Mercedes forced Lewis Hamilton to go to the end of the Monaco Grand Prix on medium tyres after fitting them on lap 11 during the safety car period. Leaving Hamilton out to the end of the race on the medium tyres left people scratching their heads, including the British driver himself.
However, Mercedes say they were worried the hard tyre wouldn't heat up enough for the safety car restart.
"The Safety Car was earlier than we would have liked and with hindsight, we should have fitted the Hard tyre, but we were concerned about the warm-up on the restart, which was why we took the medium," Mercedes race engineer Andrew Shovlin explained.
"That obviously made life difficult for Lewis and we'll review our decision making and the information that we had at the time. We're grateful that Lewis was able to manage it so well to the end as he really had to work for the victory today."