Mercedes achieved ‘perfection’ at Chinese Grand Prix after taking huge risk with Lewis Hamilton
At the 2019 Chinese Grand Prix, Mercedes achieved arguably one of the greatest feats in modern F1 history.
The Shanghai International Circuit has always balanced on a knife edge between a one stop and two stop race, with weather and track temperature being the determining factors.
With drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in first and second, respectively, the heat was on.
On lap 34 of 56, Red Bull star Max Verstappen pitted for a second time after the team spotted a chance to reignite their hopes of getting a spot on the podium.
A lap later Ferrari responded and pitted Sebastian Vettel to counteract the bold move from Red Bull that had forced cars ahead to consider a two stop strategy.
The sudden strategy change from Red Bull and Ferrari created a domino effect that brought doubt into the Mercedes garage.
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The Silver Arrows Team Principal Toto Wolf had to assess whether his drivers would last on their tires, or whether an ominous Verstappen and Vettel would catch up and overtake.
The undercut from Red Bull jeopardised Mercedes duo Hamilton and Bottas, with just seconds splitting them.
Following his second pit stop, the resurgent Vettel was now applying pressure on Bottas with his fresh tire advantage.
However, if Mercedes pitted the Finn to defend the Vettel attack then they were at risk of jeopardising race leader Lewis Hamilton.
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The Brit would have been a sitting duck to a barrage of attacks from his teammate and rivals.
On lap 36 Mercedes made the brave call and decided to pit both drivers with the gap between Hamilton and Bottas down to 5.5 seconds on pit entry.
The team had brought into action a daring double stack manoeuvre.
“Okay, don’t make me lose time,” Bottas replied over the radio.
The pit crew flooded the pitlane with double sets of tires wrapped up in blankets waiting to pull off the audacious move.
Hamilton's pitstop took 2.9 seconds, 3.4 seconds later Bottas arrived in the same spot with his pit taking just 2.6 seconds.
“Well, they feel the need to take the risk of a double stack,” chimed in ex-F1 driver Martin Brundle.
While David Croft added on Sky Sports: “Well they are double stacking because Bottas is coming into the pits, and he’s waiting and they have got this absolutely spot on.
“Valtteri Bottas didn’t have to slow down any more than he was required to with the 18km/hr speed limit.
“That was proper perfection. Just when one went out, another was ready to come back in again. Like a production line.”
Brundle added: “The choreography of that was sensational.”
The pair sailed off to finish the race in the top two spots ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Perfection might be hard to find for Mercedes this year but if they get anywhere close then Hamilton and current teammate George Russell will be delighted.
Hamilton is now enduring his worst ever start to a F1 season, while Russell’s campaign was marred by a last-lap crash in Australia.
Going into the 2024 Chinese GP, however, Aston Martin's Lance Stroll the surprise name at the top of the leaderboard in the only practice session, which was disrupted by fire on the side of the track.
With qualifying for Saturday's 19-lap sprint race due to take place at 15:30 local time (08:30 BST) on Friday, the one-hour running represented the only opportunity for the teams to trial different setups.
But it was suspended with just 15 minutes on the clock when a patch of grass at turn seven caught fire.
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A number of drivers reported seeing smoke before a marshal extinguished the flames. It is unknown at this stage what caused the unusual incident on Formula One's return to China after a five-year break.