Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes believe that Max Verstappen’s tyres had just started to hit the cliff of their performance on the final lap of the US Grand Prix, and that Lewis Hamilton could have snatched victory with just one lap extra in the race. The ‘cliff’ refers to the life of the tyre, with performance degrading over the course of a stint based on a reasonably predictable and shallow trend downwards. However, there is a point at which the tyre is pushed too far and goes ‘over the cliff’, with a severe loss of performance, and Mercedes believe Verstappen hit that point on the final lap of the US Grand Prix. Speaking in the team’s official US GP debrief, Head of Strategy James Vowles was asked whether Hamilton may have been able to take the win away from Verstappen had he pitted just one lap earlier for his final stint on the Hard compound. “First of all, one lap or two laps earlier at the end of the race would have given him tyres that allowed him to approach Verstappen, but I doubt it would have allowed him to overtake,” Vowles said. “To explain that in more detail, there is a compromise, clearly. For every lap that you go shorter at the end of the race, your tyres will be one lap younger and the tyre degrades. Every lap you put onto a tyre, every time you roll around five kilometres, it takes an amount of performance out of that tyre. “So, one lap earlier means, at the end of the race, your tyre will be a tenth, maybe a bit more, slower than it would have been. “To generate an overtake, you need a bigger and bigger tyre differential between you and the car that you are fighting. “One part of that, that we can control, is our degradation and what lap we stop on. The second, that we can’t [control], is what Verstappen’s degradation is and where he falls on the tyre curve. Now, he was predicted to fall off the tyre curve and he did, but he only did that on the very last lap of the race.” Vowles explained that the result of the race could have been very different, had Verstappen needed to go even a lap further. “I think you would have seen a different race result, but they managed that last stint very well and dropped the level of management in corners as Lewis got closer to them to make sure he had the tyres remaining for those last few laps,” Vowles added. With Hamilton pitting on Lap 37 of 56 for the final time, Vowles explained what might have happened had the reigning World Champion pitted a lap or two earlier and not fallen so far back for the start of the final stint. “If we had gone a lap or two earlier a few things would have happened,” he said. “Verstappen would have been closer on pit exit. He is on fresher tyres so, for every lap he has been going relative to Lewis, he is actually pulling just a little bit of a gap on track and, when Lewis stops, he has to push back to basically catch back up to Verstappen. If the gap is too large, let’s take it to an exaggerated level of 15 seconds, he will use all his tyres back up closing that gap down and there is nothing left in the race. “So that’s where the compromise lies. What you want is to find the lap that minimises the gap on exit and maximises the differential therefore at the end of race. And when we stopped was that, in terms of the models. “It’s difficult to really know what would have happened if we stopped a lap earlier or lap later, but what you are reliant on really for the strategy to work is Verstappen to run out of tyres and they didn’t really do that until it was too late.”

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has won the United States Grand Prix, converting his pole position into victory and thus extending his lead in the World Championship. Lewis Hamilton, who started second, got the better of Verstappen heading into Turn 1, only for the Red Bull driver to retake the lead thanks a well-timed undercut during the first round of pit stops. Although Hamilton battled back on fresher tyres in the closing stages, it was to no avail, with the Red Bull driver claiming his eighth win of the season. The final podium spot went to the second Red Bull car of Sergio Perez, who finished eight seconds clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. The two championship rivals wasted no time in getting the action underway. Both got off the line well, and although Verstappen tried to squeeze Hamilton into Turn 1, it didn’t work out. The Mercedes driver squeezed through down the inside, pushing Verstappen into the run off area. As a result, the Dutchman dropped all the way down to third, however Perez ceded his position to his teammate immediately. Behind them, Ferrari and McLaren got into an early tussle as well, with Lando Norris battling it out with Carlos Sainz. In the end, it was Ricciardo who benefited from the battle, as he found his way past the Ferrari to take fifth. Further back, Nicholas Latifi and Lance Stroll collided – with the Aston Martin driver in turn blocking his compatriot, while Esteban Ocon was forced to pit on Lap 4 following contact with an Alfa Romeo. Drivers settled into their positions from there, with Hamilton stating over the radio that Verstappen had the quicker car. Although the Red Bull driver remained with DRS range, he failed to really challenge his Mercedes rival for the lead. Things changed on Lap 11. With Verstappen complaining his tyres were overheating, Red Bull called him in early in an attempt to undercut Hamilton, and the move paid off as he took the lead when Hamilton pitted for new tyres on Lap 14. With a six-second lead in hand, Verstappen settled in as race leader while Pierre Gasly, who had some engine concerns in the minutes leading up to the start, became the first retirement of the race on Lap 15. A rear-suspension issue was to blame, though the Frenchman was able to bring his AlphaTauri car back into the pits. He would be joined by Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso later in the race. Hamilton began to eat into Verstappen’s advantage, the Mercedes driver continuing his charge after a very brief Virtual Safety Car period for debris on Lap 28. Thus, in an effort to cover against the undercut, Red Bull pitted Verstappen for new tyres on Lap 29. Mercedes kept Hamilton out on track, with their sights set on having the advantage in the closing stages of the race, while Valtteri Bottas pitted in an attempt to make something happen strategically. It wasn’t meant to be for the Finn however, as he finished the race down in P6. Hamilton finally pitted on Lap 37 for a new set of Hards, with Mercedes getting him out in just 2.4s, but 8.5s back of Verstappen. That advantage quickly disappeared, with Verstappen slowed down by traffic and Hamilton decidedly quicker on his fresher tyres. Despite Hamilton’s best efforts, Verstappen crossed the line in the end to take victory by less than two seconds, while Perez finished a distant third. Behind the top three, Charles Leclerc brought his Ferrari home in fourth spot after being locked into the position for much of the race, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, Valtteri Bottas, Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris. 2021 F1 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX – RESULTS POS DRIVER NAT. TEAM TIME 1 Max Verstappen NED Red Bull Racing 56 Laps 2 Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team + 1.333s 3 Sergio Perez MEX Red Bull Racing + 42.223s 4 Charles Leclerc MON Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow + 52.246s 5 Daniel Ricciardo AUS McLaren F1 Team + 76.854s 6 Valtteri Bottas FIN Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team + 80.128s 7 Carlos Sainz ESP Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow + 83.545s 8 Lando Norris GBR McLaren F1 Team + 84.395s 9 Yuki Tsunoda JPN Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda + 1 Lap 10 Sebastian Vettel GER Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team + 1 Lap 11 Antonio Giovinazzi ITA Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen + 1 Lap 12 Lance Stroll CAN Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team + 1 Lap 13 Kimi Raikkonen FIN Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen + 1 Lap 14 George Russell GBR Williams Racing + 1 Lap 15 Nicholas Latifi CAN Williams Racing + 1 Lap 16 Mick Schumacher GER Uralkali Haas F1 Team + 2 Laps 17 Nikita Mazepin RUS Uralkali Haas F1 Team + 2 Laps DNF Fernando Alonso ESP Alpine F1 Team DNF DNF Esteban Ocon FRA Alpine F1 Team DNF DNF Pierre Gasly FRA Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda DNF