Why did Red Bull not take advantage of Mercedes' weakness?

Virtual Safety car

It should have been a weekend that unexpectedly brought much more excitement because of the tight weather on Friday. Moreover, it was a foretaste of what is to come in a fortnight' time at Imola. There, the teams will also only be able to use the Saturday to adjust the car. There will only be one free practice session.

So there were a lot of question marks over the tyres before the race. Would they last long in these cold temperatures? Will it be a single stop or a two-stopper? In the end, the first pit stop before the head of the race was done during a virtual saftey car after sixteen laps. The choice was made for the teams because changing the tyres takes less time than with a regular stop.

No second regular stop Red Bull

Even in the remainder of the race, the choice for a possible two-stopper was not made on the pit wall or by the many analysts who calculate all possible scenarios in the background, but by the safety car. Even though at Mercedes they looked forward to the fact that Verstappen wouldn't go in sooner, forcing Hamilton to go in as well. "They knew from the first pit stop that their tyres would warm up faster than ours. Our lead decreased from five to 2.5 seconds. Also, because of the corona cases in the team, we didn't have our standard pit crew with us. Something can always go wrong there. We always attack the perceived weaknesses of the opponent".

In the end Hamilton and Verstappen went in during the Safety car which eliminated any advantage for Verstappen. Whether a second stop by Verstappen would have made much difference is doubtful, because Verstappen never really came close to Hamilton. By the way, they indicated at Mercedes that Hamilton had not had to go inside and could have driven out of the race without a second stop.