
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.”