[E90SLAM]

Toto Wolff admits Mercedes 'got the math wrong'

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...got-math-wrong

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admitted his team "got the math wrong" in making the pit call that cost Lewis Hamilton victory at the Monaco Grand Prix.

The pit stop was made on lap 66 under a safety car and dropped Hamilton from the lead to third place. Wolff said the decision was made in an attempt to pre-empt a similar strategy being used by Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel in third, but the team based the call on incorrect information that told them Hamilton would resume in the lead.

"What the hell happened there, that is exactly the right question," Wolff said. "The simple answer is we got the math wrong, the calculation wrong. We thought we had a gap which we didn't have when the safety car came out and Lewis was behind the safety car. The calculation was simply wrong and that's what happened."

The teams usually base such decisions on GPS data from the cars, but the tall buildings of Monte Carlo means the data is not available in Monaco. Added to the confusion caused by race control's decision to initially deploy a virtual safety car (a method for neutralising the race at a lower speed) before releasing the actual safety car, Wolff said the team got its decision wrong.

"In Monaco you have no GPS and that makes the whole exercise more difficult and this is why we got it wrong when it switched from virtual safety car into safety car.

"The final decision was made 50 metres before the pit entry."

Pushed on why the team considered risking a pit stop when track position is key at Monaco, Wolff said: "The potential risk could have been that Sebastian would switch on to a soft tyre behind us and coming up behind Nico, it could have been a risk at the end. Now, let's say, very simply from a common sense overview disregarding the data ... we have to follow the data. This is how the squad works, but I agree it looks like a risk. The simple answer is that the numbers were wrong."

Wolff said it was a joint decision between team and driver.

"The decision is being made jointly with a lot of information at the same time but in a fraction of seconds you need to make a call. We tried to make as much input as possible from the engineers, from the management and from the driver and then you take a decision. In that case the algorithm was wrong."

[E90SLAM]

Max Verstappen penalised but blames 'dangerous' Romain Grosjean for crash

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...n-monaco-crash

Max Verstappen blamed Romain Grosjean for the collision which sent him into the wall at Sainte Devote and triggered Monaco's race-changing safety car period.

Verstappen was chasing Grosjean down for tenth place late in the race but ended up colliding with the Lotus, which briefly propelled him into the air before he landed in the barriers. After the race the 17-year-old was slapped with a five-place grid penalty for the Canadian Grand Prix and two points on his superlicence, but he insisted he was not even trying to pass the Frenchman when the crash occured.

"It was not even a move," Verstappen explained. "The lap before I braked on exactly the same spot but clearly in the lap we crashed, he braked 10 to 15 metres earlier, and if you are that close to each other and going to 80 from 290 there is no room and you can't go anywhere. I really tried to avoid it and maybe it looked like an overtake but he braked way earlier than the lap before, normally the whole race you are braking within five metres."

Verstappen was asked if he thought Grosjean was "brake-testing" him, to which he replied: "Kind of, he was for sure braking 10 to 15 metres earlier ... It's very dangerous and for sure it will be a bit sore tomorrow."

The rookie said he only realised he was going to make contact when it was too late.

"On the moment he braked [I realised] but then you are too late, because you don't expect someone to brake that early. You have no room to go anywhere."

[acechardukian]

[solstice]

Originally Posted by gary88

I think that sums up the epic cluster done to HAM well enough.

I also thought Ferrari through away 2nd position which would have become 1st by pitting VET before ROS. The Ferrari is easy on tyres and they should have let ROS pit first, pulled out enough lead and then pitted VET. Poor day for the strategy people all over.

Finally how the heck can ROS celebrate like that after this? Shame on him, Prost 2.

[NickyC]

What a screw job, lmfao. That is honestly the worst thing I've ever seen done to a driver, wow!

Pretty impressed Hamilton didn't lose his cool at all though.

[NickyC]

Originally Posted by ashtaron14

Monaco is old and not that nice. But it's a filthy rich place, and Bernie never argues with the filthy rich.

Huh? Have you ever been there? I love it.

[hellrotm]

LOL what a clusterf*ck.

Lewis needs to look past today. If he continues the way he is driving, he will handily win the big picture.

[GuyOh]

Originally Posted by solstice

Finally how the heck can ROS celebrate like that after this? Shame on him, Prost 2.

Ummm did you see the way he celebrated last year after cheating for pole??? Even more disgusting.

Hamilton clearly deserved and should have won, what a stupid call from the team to pit him.

I thought Riccardo should have got a penalty on his overtake on Kimi

and I agree with Verstappen, Grosjean did brake way too early

[E90SLAM]

Why Mercedes gave Hamilton that fateful pit stop – and why it cost him victory

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/05/2...t-him-victory/

Mercedes’ decision to bring Lewis Hamilton into the pits on lap 65 of the 2015 Monaco Grand Prix will forever be remembered as the moment that lost him the race – and probably one of F1’s most disastrous pit calls.

But why did they do it? As the data from the race shows, Mercedes were not the only team to think it was a move they could and should take.

In fact, more than half the teams took the opportunity to pit one of their cars during the Safety Car period caused by the Max Verstappen-Romain Grosjean crash. In the case of Red Bull, switching Daniel Ricciardo to a softer set of tyres gave him the performance boost he needed to reclaim fifth place from Kimi Raikkonen with a forceful pass.

All of the drivers who did come in for a late pit stop had one thing in common: they had enough of a gap over the next car behind them that they could expect they wouldn’t lose a position by doing so. Ricciardo, Sergio Perez, Jenson Button, Felipe Nasr and Felipe Massa all took the opportunity to make a ‘free’ pit stop and get on fresher tyres, and all held their positions.

What’s more, several of them had smaller margins over their closest pursuers than Hamilton to begin with. Hamilton had a lead of more than 19 seconds over Nico Rosberg when he came in, yet lost the lead to Rosberg and second place to Sebastian Vettel. How did it go wrong for Mercedes?

For 30 seconds after Verstappen speared the barrier at Sainte Devote the Virtual Safety Car boards were illuminated. This was the first time they had been used in Formula One, but they were swiftly replaced by the Safety Car boards. It was this more conventional development that caught Mercedes out.

“We got our numbers wrong”, Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff admitted. “We thought we had the gap for Lewis to take fresh tyres and come back out in the lead behind the Safety Car, ahead of Nico and covering off any risk of another competitor taking fresh tyres. But the calculation was incorrect and he came out in third place.”

The pit stop itself was not especially fast but that wasn’t where the bulk of time was lost. Hamilton’s 65th tour – his in-lap – took over two minutes and 11 seconds. For comparison that of Ricciardo, who was heading to the pits at the same time, was a shade under the two minute mark.

The difference was down to the location of the Safety Car on the track. Hamilton caught it in the second sector of his in-lap. When he pulled into the pits Rosberg and Vettel hadn’t caught it yet, and the time they gained catching the Safety Car as they looped around the Monaco pits was where they gained the time Hamilton’s strategists thought they had in hand.

This was not the first time Hamilton has been caught out pitting under the Safety Car at Monaco. Two years ago he was passed by both Red Bull drivers in a similar situation, though the circumstances on that occasion were somewhat different.

Today’s scenario was more similar to Singapore last year, where Mercedes brought Hamilton in from the lead for super-soft tyres under a Safety Car period with just eight laps to go. On that occasion he fell behind Sebastian Vettel but was easily able to pass him to win.

However in Monaco, where track position is even more critical, Mercedes surely would not have brought Hamilton in at all had they thought it was likely he would lose the lead. They expected he would be able to put on fresh tyres, strengthening his position at the front, without losing any advantage. But his ‘free’ pit stop turned out to have a high price.

Why did Mercedes do it? Clearly they thought they saw an opportunity to gain an advantage at no cost. They were also relying on input from Hamilton about the state of his tyres. Tellingly, in the press conference he revealed he had been keeping an eye on developments on the track side video walls and had formed a mistaken impression that Rosberg and Vettel had already switched to the super-soft tyres.

“I saw a screen, it looked like the team was out and I thought that Nico had pitted,” said Hamilton. “Obviously I couldn’t see the guys behind so I thought the guys behind were pitting.”

“The team said to stay out, I said ‘these tyres are going to drop in temperature,’ and what I was assuming was that these guys would be on [super-soft] and I was on the harder tyre.”

“So they said to pit. Without thinking I came in with full confidence that the others had done the same.”

As Mercedes being the post-mortem on this one they will surely find more than one way their strategic game needs to be sharpened up.

[E90SLAM]

Originally Posted by BlackJetE90

LOL what a clusterf*ck.

Lewis needs to look past today. If he continues the way he is driving, he will handily win the big picture.

He will, I just hope this won't be the turning point of his momentum and spiritually losing out to unfortunate situations and poor calls.

He got it back last year with several DNF and horrible qualify problems. He will do more "talking" on the track.

[M_Six]

HAM was quite magnanimous in his public reaction, but then again when you sign a $150 million contract with a team, you don't go and trash them the next day. I bet in private he was furious and let them know.

ROS needs to develop a little bit of class. Sure, be happy you won, but don't rub HAM's face in it. It wasn't HAM's error.

If the situation had been reversed and it was ROS who lost the lead, I doubt he would have been such a team player. He'd still be whining to anyone who would continue to listen.

[phrozen06]

Looking forward to Canada. Hamilton will be as motivated as ever.

[JuzMe]

Originally Posted by gary88

LOL

[E90SLAM]

[six_timer]

Originally Posted by Petros

Its about time to get rid of that garbage monaco race. In any other track even with the blunder hamilton would have still been able to overtake and win easily. Monaco should have been scrapped off the F1 calendar long ago

Fortunately, the drivers and the world disagree.

[954Stealth]

Originally Posted by five_timer

Fortunately, the drivers and the world disagree.

One of my favorite tracks

[MrPrena]

Monaco may be a nightmare for teams to setup logistically, but it is one of the gran prix people love.

At least it is not Herman Tilke's circuit. Can't stand those types of circuits.

[Petros]

Originally Posted by MrPrena

Monaco may be a nightmare for teams to setup logistically, but it is one of the gran prix people love.

At least it is not Herman Tilke's circuit. Can't stand those types of circuits.

Originally Posted by 954Stealth

One of my favorite tracks

Originally Posted by five_timer

Fortunately, the drivers and the world disagree.

can any of you explain to me what is so great about monaco? it's the only track in the world where you can be several seconds a lap faster yet be unable to overtake. Every single year it's a boring procession. The only overtaking we ever see is in the pitstops, or when one of the cars breaks down. It says a lot that the only "excitement" in over an hour of racing came from a big crash and a terribly-timed pitstop.

[954Stealth]

My first thought after reading your post was remembering the great overtaking and maneuvering from Sergio Perez in the SFI car a year or 2 ago especially at the hairpin.

It's a storied, historic track against a beautiful backdrop. The nature of the track doesn't lend itself to a lot of overtaking but thats true of any track set on city streets but that doesn't mean there won't be some good racing and - as in my example above - some great sparring.

A "boring procession" is more of the current nature of F1 than of this track specifically

[dim635csi]

Originally Posted by MrPrena

Monaco may be a nightmare for teams to setup logistically, but it is one of the gran prix people love.

At least it is not Herman Tilke's circuit. Can't stand those types of circuits.

+1

Recent "accomplishments" http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Tilke

[MrPrena]

Originally Posted by dim635csi

+1

Recent "accomplishments" http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Tilke

It makes sense.
My favorite is Spa, Monza, Imola, pre-2001 Hockenheim, Gilles Villeneuve Circuit

Herman Tilke circuit is mainly attracted the challenge by using hills, and others. Sure, it may save estates to create good circuit, but it has too many short straight, 90+ deg slow corners.

[E90SLAM]

Monaco is not just about overtaking.
Being fast in Monaco is a challenge itself too. The gap between fast and crash is just about a thickness of a cigarette box.