F1 News
Wollf explains: 'We thought undercut would have a bigger impact'
- GPblog.com
Mercedes' dramatic weekend in Monaco was not only limited to Valtteri Bottas' disastrous pit stop, where a broken nut meant the Finn's race was over, Lewis Hamilton's attempted undercut also proved anything but successful. Team principal Toto Wolff and former technical director James Allison explain the wrong team decisions this weekend.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, Wolff revealed that the undercut on Sunday was the only chance for Hamilton to get past Pierre Gasly, who made himself into an efficient roadblock in his AlphaTauri. "I think the undercut was the only chance that we had", said Wolff.
The team boss continued his explanation, "There was some communication between him and the strategists, are we undercutting, and we felt the undercut had much bigger potential to kind of jump Gasly. And it wasn't enough." Not only did Hamilton fail to overtake the Frenchman, he also lost places to Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Perez.
Gasly the roadblock
The alternative to the undercut, James Allison knows, wouldn't have given the team anything either: "The chances are that Gasly wouldn't have stopped anytime soon. and our fear was that Gasly was going to simply just stay out there as a road block forever."