Shovlin: Decision to stop Hamilton was triggered by Bottas

Andrew Shovlin reveals that Valtteri Bottas’ decision to get intermediate tires at the end of the Russian GP affected Lewis Hamilton’s strategy.

Why it matters: The Finn was among the first drivers to fit intermediates, which proved to be a successful strategy.

Details:

• Shovlin admits that Mercedes saw the rain would intensify.
• The forecast and Bottas’ performance after pit stop were decisive factors in calling Hamilton to the pits.

What he had to say:

• “As you know, all the teams, we’ve got the same rain radar, we could see the rain coming in, and we could see that it was going to start light.”
• “What we could see was that it was then going to get heavier. And that was really the thing that we were reacting to.”
• “But, in some ways, our decision making was helped by the fact that Valtteri was out of the points and he had nothing to lose: so we were the first to make the jump.”
• “Then seeing how the tires were working on his car we followed suit with Lewis soon after. And certainly not leading the race makes it a bit easier to take those decisions.”