In Istanbul, Mercedes was able to celebrate their sixth victory of the season, the first brought home by Valtteri Bottas during this intense 2021. The most important placement in terms of the race for the drivers’ title, however, was the fifth place in Lewis Hamilton. The Stevenage champion only partially recovered after starting from 11th position on the grid, failing to get on the podium. During and after the race Hamilton highlighted his dissatisfaction with the strategy implemented by the team. According to him, the team should have made him finish the race with the same intermediate tires with which the Briton had started, practically replicating the zero pit stop strategy implemented by Alpine with Esteban Ocon.
Toto Wolff in traditional post-race interviews, however, he explained how this plan was not feasible. In support of the thinking of the Austrian team principal he also intervened Andrew Shovlin, Trackside engineering director of the house of the Star. However, according to Shovlin, the final placement of the reigning world champion would not have changed. Staying further on the track, however, would have exposed Hamilton to avoidable risks. “We decided to leave Lewis out for the chance to go all the way or switch to the dry tire. But it became clear to us that the right time for slicks would never come. Our strategy tools showed that we would still be beaten by Perez and Leclerc if we stayed out – Shovlin clarified – so we chose a new set of intermediates to minimize our losses“.
The English engineer, on the other hand, applauded the splendid race of Valtteri Bottas. “Valtteri rode superbly in the wet today – concluded Shovlin – he had the race under control from start to finish. His fastest lap at the end shows how much he had ‘in reserve’. The only difficult point of his race was giving the lead to Charles to cover Max’s pit stop, but the first position returned to him quite quickly “.