Toto Wolff likens Mercedes’ hard tyre decision to ‘putting the hand in the TOILET’

Toto Wolff described Mercedes’ bold decision to switch to a hard-tyre strategy at the Bahrain Grand Prix as the equivalent of ‘putting the hand in the toilet’. 

Lacking pace compared to Ferrari and Red Bull, the decision was made to veer away from the preferred soft and medium compound tyres to give Lewis Hamilton and George Russell longer stints on track.

But it did not pay off and prior to the late safety car – which followed Piere Gasly’s AlphaTauri catching fire – the Silver Arrows found themselves 35 seconds adrift of race winner Charles Leclerc. 

Team principal Toto Wolff described the hard tyre call as like ‘putting the hand in the toilet’

Asked about the decision making behind the tyre switch and whether they would have repeated it if they could have their time over, Wolff accepted it was a ‘lesson learned’.  

‘I think with the soft tyre, on pure pace before the tyre degrades, we are almost there – not where Leclerc is – but with the others, but then degradation is too big,’ Wolff told Sky Sports F1 after the race.

‘And then obviously we tried to do something different, but putting the hard [tyre] on was putting the hand in the toilet and it was really a second slower every single lap. 

‘Lesson learned, so maybe that 35 seconds [gap] is a bit against us.’

They had been on the yellow band softer tyres but looked to maximise a different strategy

Helped by late retirements for both Red Bull drivers, Mercedes were able to sneak a podium finish for Hamilton, while Russell was directly behind in fourth. 

Those 27 points could prove vital in the race to win a ninth consecutive constructors’ championship title this season, with Red Bull taking nothing away from Bahrain. 

Mercedes have been open about the fact that the car, in this moment, is not in a position to compete for race wins. 

Rivals expected that that sort of talk was hyperbolic on Mercedes’ behalf but Bahrain showed they could do little to put Hamilton in a position to win. 

‘I think it was such a difficult race, we struggled through practice,’ Hamilton said afterwards. 

‘This is really the best result we could have got, of course it was unfortunate for the other two drivers (Verstappen and Perez) but we did the best we could and got the points.’

Lewis Hamilton snatched a place on the podium in the final lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix

Asked whether he is optimistic that significant upgrades to the car are en route, Hamilton added:  ‘I’m hoping.

‘I know the guys are working really hard back at the factory and it’s not going to be a quick turnaround, but as a team I do feel we’ve been the best unified team for so long.

‘If we keep our heads down and keep working… there’s a long way to go.’

Action returns for the second race of the season in Abu Dhabi this weekend, where seven-time world champion Hamilton will look to build on his first podium of the season.