"We would have exposed ourselves to a risk of overheating" - Mercedes explains the reason behind different strategies for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell at the 2022 F1 Miami GP

Lewis Hamilton was frustrated by Mercedes’ decision to keep him on a ‘sub-optimal’ strategy late during the 2022 F1 Miami GP, which led to him losing position to teammate George Russell.

Explaining their decision, the team has revealed that they chose the best possible strategies for both drivers at that point in the race, given the tire warm-up and overheating issues that plagued their cars.

Speaking in the team’s regular ‘race debrief’ video posted on social media, Mercedes technical director Mike Elliot said:

“As soon as the VSC came out we obviously called George [Russell] to the pits. If the race had resumed normally everything would have been linear, but after a while, the SC entered the track and played a lot against Lewis [Hamilton]. If instead we had stopped him, he would have found himself behind George and with new but hard tires, because he did not have another set of mediums, and if we had opted for the soft, we would have exposed ourselves to a risk of overheating after just a few laps.”

Tire warm-up once again played an important role at the Miami GP. Drivers who started on the hard compound found that the tires took more than 20 laps to get into the proper working temperature, thereby causing them to lose performance early in their stint.

Once the tires were in their optimal temperatures, however, they seemed to have very little degradation, thereby allowing drivers to have extremely long stints. This ultimately benefitted drivers who started on the hards, such as Mercedes' George Russell.

After losing positions at lights out, Russell rapidly began to carve his way through the field after lap 20. By the time the VSC came out 20 laps later, he was already on course for a potential P8 finish. The safety car periods, however, allowed him to have a ‘cheap pit stop’ thereby cutting his deficit to the cars ahead and helping him gain even more positions.

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton started the race on mediums and displayed excellent pace throughout his first stint. When the VSC came out, however, he was just one place ahead of his Mercedes teammate, albeit with less than a pit stop worth of gap ahead of him. Had he pitted for fresh tires, he would have come out behind Russell and struggled for pace.

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Mercedes were caught between a “rock and a hard” place: Mike Elliot

Mercedes technical director Mike Elliot believes his team was caught between a “rock and a hard place” late in the Miami GP as they mulled over whether to pit Lewis Hamilton for fresh tires. He said:

“We knew Lewis’ [Hamilton] tires would overheat even more quickly because he was just behind George [Russell] fighting on track and that would have put even more heat into the tyres. We were caught between a rock and a hard place and there was no real right answer.”

Hamilton was frustrated at yet another loss to his much younger teammate, and felt that he would have been much better off had he started the race on the same strategy as Russell.