Mercedes had their best weekend of the 2024 Formula 1 season in Canada but may feel they could have achieved even more.
George Russell scored the team’s first Grand Prix podium of the campaign although the Mercedes social media appeared to forget that Lewis Hamilton finished on the podium during the Sprint Race in China.
Damon Hill was speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast about how Mercedes performed on the wet streets of Montreal.
Few F1 fans would have predicted at the start of the 2024 season that George Russell would have secured a pole position for Mercedes in the first ten races of the campaign.
Not only that, he and Hamilton both appeared to have the pace to challenge for the win had certain scenarios gone their way.
However, Hill has admitted that Mercedes made one strategy call towards the end of the race that he simply didn’t understand.
It could have potentially cost the team a double podium finish or even their first victory since 2022.
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Damon Hill left very confused by Mercedes’s strategy call during the Canadian Grand Prix
It’s been a frustrating season for Mercedes after narrowly beating Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship last year.
The Tifosi and McLaren have both taken big strides forward to reel in Red Bull while they appeared to stand still over the winter.
However, their various attempts to perfect their upgrade packages appeared to finally come to fruition in Canada.
Russell and Hamilton both looked rapid in qualifying and it speaks volumes that the seven-time world champion was frustrated with starting the race in 7.
Hamilton said after the race that there was something Mercedes needed to look at after narrowly missing out on joining Russell on the podium.
Hill believed that Mercedes potentially made one mistake when it came to their final pit stops.
However, their hand may have been forced by the tyres they had available for the last laps of the race.
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Damon Hill didn’t understand Mercedes’s final tyre choices in Canada
Speaking about the team’s performance in Montreal, Hill said: “I mean, the Mercedes guys, they started with a pit stop and went with George [Russell] who was on the medium onto the hard and Lewis went the other way around.
“And I’m scratching my head looking at that one going they obviously wanted the tyre that the other person was on!
“But these subtle differences are now having a big effect on performance.
“It’s a bit like a tight high-wire act, you only need to slip slightly and you’re completely off the peak of the performance and it’s very, very critical now.”
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Hamilton and Russell started the race with identical tyre allocations left but the team decided to split the strategy, potentially because the weather was still so unpredictable.
Hill’s gripe is a small one in the grand scheme of things for Mercedes considering how tough their season has been thus far.
The real test of where Mercedes sit in the pecking order will come when they reach Spain for the next race.
If they’re still challenging for pole positions and podiums, then Toto Wolff and co will have plenty of reasons to get excited.
The post ‘Scratching my head’: Damon Hill shares the one Mercedes strategy call in Canada he found very confusing appeared first on F1 Oversteer.