"Second and fourth, it's annoying, but we had good race day"- Mercedes boss defends team's strategy at Dutch GP despite Lewis Hamilton's outburst

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff defended the strategy employed by the team at the Dutch GP on Sunday despite an outburst from Lewis Hamilton.

Before the safety car and virtual safety car stoppage, the two Mercedes drivers - Hamilton and George Russell - had made their only pitstop. Red Bull's Max Verstappen, meanwhile, had a pitstop to make and needed to overtake the two Mercedes to win the race.

However, all that changed when the virtual safety car arrived with Hamilton in the lead on older medium tyres, while Verstappen was right behind him on soft. Verstappen easily overtook the Mercedes driver as Hamilton eventually ended outside the podium places, finishing in P4.

Hamilton was quite angry on the team radio for the team strategy that possibly cost him a win or at least a podium finish.

However, Wolff backed the strategy employed by the team, although he wasn't happy with how things panned out. The Mercedes boss understood Hamilton's frustration but tried to delve on the positives, saying:

"First of all we are the trash bin for the driver. They are highly emotional. That close fighting for the win and then beaten up. Every emotion comes out. ... you are in the cockpit, and you don't see everything."

He added:

“I just discussed with Lewis; there’s so much more positives to take. Second and fourth, it’s annoying, but we had a good race day, that’s most important, and you’ve got to take risks where we are.”

Wolff added that it appeared to be the right strategy for Hamilton to hold position with his older medium, but that cost the team a win.

"We discussed in the morning - are we taking a risk for the race win?", said Wolff. "Yes, we are taking risks. He had a 5-lap older medium, and holding position was the right thing to do. In the end, it didn't work out for him. I'd rather win the race than finish second and third."

Wolff explained the reasoning behind not pitting Hamilton and bringing Russell in for soft tyres. He said that the team needed to cover all the bases, so the strategy was split between the two drivers. Wolff said that it was a catch 22 situation, as pitting either man first would have left the team 'screwed'.

"First of all Lewis was ahead. So, he has no problem with the call. You could either pit Lewis and lose track position to Verstappen, and leave George out or be screwed. You can be both screwed."

---

We do not need to change the VSC rules: Mercedes boss

If it wasn't for the Safety Car or Virtual Safety Car period, it could have been a much closer fight between Hamilton and Verstappen. That was, however, not to be, as the disruptions meant Verstappen was able to find himself right behind Hamilton, who became a sitting duck for the quicker Red Bull.

During the Dutch GP broadcast, there were suggestions that the VSC rules might need to be looked at, as they do influence the race significantly. Wolff did not agree with that, though, saying:

"Sometimes it works for you; sometimes it doesn't work for you. As long as we adhere to the rules. The decisions from race control is spot on. This is a good track for us, but I am not sure we are going to have more successful weekends going forward in terms of car pace, but there is a lot to understand."

The ease with which Verstappen surpassed Hamilton on the restart indicates that a win was probably out of the picture for Mercedes. However, with Russell pitting for softs, Hamilton was left exposed and pushed off the podium places by his teammate and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.