“That one is on us”– Mercedes acknowledges blunder strategy with Lewis Hamilton; ignores Valtteri Bottas call

“That one is on us”– Mercedes recognizes the blunder they made that eventually led to Red Bull’s win in France and extending the lead.

Red Bull with the two pit stop strategy brought in 41 points to their title challenge contention, with Max Verstappen taking the win and Sergio Perez grabbing a P3.

This time Mercedes was the one who were caught out with the similar strategy they used in Hungary and Spain, with both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas becoming the victim of fresher tyres of Verstappen.

The Brackley-based team then apologized to Hamilton for their abysmal strategy and not predicting what was coming when Verstappen went into the pit.

“That one is on us,” says Mercedes’ James Vowles to Lewis Hamilton over the radio. Meanwhile, Bottas’ not recovering his lead on Verstappen during the latter’s pitstop was also a hard hit, and not to forget the Dutch race driver also gaining from the undercut he made on Hamilton while the latter was in the pitlane.

Red Bull’s undercut strategy worked a treat… just 😮 #FrenchGP 🇫🇷 #F1 pic.twitter.com/bQU17aBjUL

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 20, 2021

Ignored Valtteri Bottas goal

When Bottas was losing against Perez in the battle for P3, the Finnish was fuming on his radio, and it was observed that apparently, Bottas recommended his team to make a timely pitstop to not lose against Red Bull.

But his team decided to follow the opposite strategy by deciding to survive on the overused tyres, technically making them defenceless against the quicker Red Bull duo.

Meanwhile, Hamilton tried his best to keep Verstappen away, as in between he managed to gain some time on Verstappen, but in the final three laps, the Dutch recovered quickly, and in the following lap overtook him.

This was the end to Mercedes’ gamble and a good triumph for Red Bull, as they only hoped to extend their lead in the championship. From here, a double-header in Austria, which is the home of Red Bull would be a highly influencing turn in the championship fight.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

Read More