Mercedes under fire over race-winning 'bluff' tactic

Lewis Hamilton’s Italian Grand Prix win came about in part because Sebastian Vettel crashed into his title rival on the first lap.

But a sneaky tactic in pit lane have helped the Mercedes driver along as well after Ferrari blinked first for new tyres – though the controversial trick might not be around for too much longer.

Vettel’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen held the early lead from pole position and after 20 laps the new battle was on as the home heroes and Mercedes weighed up their one and only pit stops.

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Both crews left their respective garages but it was Raikkonen and Ferrari who decided to jump first, so Hamilton stayed out on track to take over at the front and forcing the Mercedes workers to head back in.

Then the eagle eyes of Sky Sports analyst Paul Di Resta alerted the Formula One world to a bit of gamesmanship.

“Did you see how difficult Mercedes made it for the Ferrari to have to drive round them into the box?” he said.

As is customary in motorsport, Mercedes have the first garage in pit lane after winning the title last year – and runners-up Ferrari are right in front of them.

“You can lose about a second, a second and a half, trying to be careful. He (Raikkonen) didn’t have that nice straight line,” Di Resta added.

Lead commentator David Croft questioned his co-caller Martin Brundle about whether the tactic was even legal, and fans shared their disappointment on social media during the race:

The sporting regulations say “team personnel are only allowed in the pit lane immediately before they are required to work on a car”.

So the simple fact of the matter is: yes, Mercedes were well within their rights to prepare for a pit stop because the race is about strategy as much as it is racing.

“If you are intending to make a bona fide pit stop, you can’t risk your men (getting hit by another car) and just put them out there for fun to try to spoil somebody else’s stop,” Brundle said.

Mercedes brought the crew out again on lap 21 but Hamilton did not pit until lap 28, while teammate Valtteri Bottas waited eight more laps.

The bluff’s ability to scare Mercedes into an early pit stop meant Raikkonen’s tyres were spent by the later laps of the race, helping hand Hamilton the win and a leg up over Vettel in the championship race.

Team boss Toto Wolff said after the race that the two misfired attempts weren’t “phantom” stops to fool Ferrari.

“You need to be prepared if you undercut or overcut,” he said.

“We didn’t know if Kimi was coming in so the message was to do the opposite. Doing the opposite means you need to have the pit crew prepared.”

However, there is a twist – FIA race director Charlie Whiting might not be happy to let a similar scenario slide in the future.

“My feeling is that it is all part of the game,” he said, as reported by ESPN.

“We don’t like teams hanging around in the pit lane if they are not actually doing a pit stop, but if they come out as if they are going to do one … if they did it every lap I think we would have something to say.”

Quizzed specifically on the idea that one team could block another with the tactic, Whiting doubled down on the possibility of an official response.

“If they do then we will have a look at it,” he said.

“If it’s clear that that’s what they are doing, to make it more difficult for another car to come in and they had no intention of pitting, then we might well want to investigate it.”