The American stage in Austin gave Formula 1 fans yet another chapter in the thrilling duel between Max Verstappen And Lewis Hamilton for the conquest of the world title. Smiling under the checkered flag was once again the Dutch driver, able to precede his rival by just over a second at the finish line, despite the overtaking immediately at the start. The current leader of the world classification has made the counter-overtaking thanks to the courageous strategy of the Red Bull box, which has implemented a undercut at the end of the first stint to be able to gain track position in the # 44 Mercedes.
This daring strategy, however, exposed Verstappen and Red Bull to greater difficulty in the final race, as Hamilton made up for it with fresher tires. Perfect tire management by the Hasselt native, however, allowed the young orange’s RB16B to reach the finish line first, without the Englishman ever having the chance to attempt an attack. Speaking in the usual debrief video posted by Mercedes on its YouTube channel, James Vowles explained how this was the determining factor in the defeat of the silver arrows in America. Answering those who asked him if it could be of use stop Hamilton one lap earlier at the end of the second stint, the Mercedes strategy chief retorted that this wouldn’t make a big difference at the end of the race.
“Stopping one lap earlier means that, at the end of the race, your tire will be a tenth, maybe a little more, slower than it would have been otherwise. – Vowles pointed out – to generate overtaking, you need to have a very large tire differential between you and the car you are struggling with. Part of this we can control is our degradation, based on which lap we stop. The second, that we cannot [controllare], it’s Verstappen’s degradation and when his tire performance curve begins to drop “. The Dutch tire management however, he blew up Mercedes’ plans: “The tire ‘curve’ was expected to drop and it did, but only on the last lap of the race“ Vowles admitted.
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