How Mercedes threw away a victory through poor strategy - Spain Review

Mercedes had the chance to earn themselves yet another 1-2 finish in Barcelona yesterday, but poor strategy allowed for them to be played by Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton for the two to score their first victory together.

George Russell showed us he is desperately trying to hang onto his championship campaign by reminding us that he is still here and still that guy over 1 lap, especially in Q3. Overall, this weekend was make or break for George and he made it, with some luck coming back to him with the Antonelli's DNF, though if Mercedes got the strategy right he could have definitely won.

Image credits: Motorsport.com

Charles Leclerc is really lost right now and it seems odd that every time Ferrari has a car that can fight for championships, Leclerc fades. In 2022, both parties were at fault though Charles Leclerc could not handle the pressure that comes with potentially fighting for the title. This year, like 2022, Charles had an amazing start to the season, and some starting talking about his potentiality to be a dark horse for the championship if the Mercedes duo get in the way of each other, but over the last couple of weekends, he has made too many mistakes.

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In Canada, he was just off the pace and quoted the weekend as "The worst in my career so far". In Monaco, he messed up his final lap and missed pole by 3 tenths when he was looking quickest all weekend and then in the race he crashed with 10 laps to go. Now, he crashes in Q3, has to start 10th, then in the race, his car breaks and he DNFs. Though the DNF wasn't his fault, the Q3 crash definitely was, and now he is leading the best of the rest from the apparent championship battle we have coming with Russell, Antonelli, and Hamilton.

Tyre degredation was very high this weekend, and all the announcers were talking about 3 stops being the ideal stategy. Indeed the 3 stop was the ideal strategy and suprisingly Ferrari just rolled with it. It seems every time Ferrari doesn't mess with their strategy or when they pay little attention to it is when it goes the best for them.

I cannot believe that Mercedes thought they could get away with a 2 stop when the deg was as bad as it was. In the second stint, after Hamilton pit, it would have made so much sense to pit George then Kimi a lap later to cover Lando behind and stay with Lewis in front. While the two Mercedes were fighting, Lewis made up 35 seconds while Mercedes did nothing, allowing for Hamilton to easily undercut them and build a lead that they couldn't make up.

Image credits : Motorsport.com

Overall Mercedes threw this weekend away and I am pretty upset that they lost their first race this season. As a Mercedes fan, I want, just for the sake of it, for this car to statistically be better than the RB19, which only lost 1 race, so now this car can be statistically even with the RB19, which I will have to settle with.

Props to Isack Hadjar for climbing back to 6th after dropping to 13th off the start, his overtakes were absolute cinema and actually made the first half really entertaining.

Props to both Alpine and VCARB for double points finishes, and mega props to Gasly for being only 1 of 2 drivers to have scored every weekend this year. Also congrats to Alpine for fighting for Gasly with their right to review and winning, that podium was very well deserved.

Finally, congrats to Lewis, though I am upset it wasn't a Mercedes, he really deserved this win and I am excited to see how this affects his confidence going forward and how he will try to take the challenge to Kimi and George to give us a very excited championship battle.

We should all be excited for the rest of this season, for me, I am excited for Austria and excited to see how Mercedes bounces back from this.