Mercedes needed "crystal ball" for Hamilton victory

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin believes would have needed a "crystal ball" to devise a strategy capable of guiding Lewis Hamilton to victory at the United States Grand Prix.

Hamilton made his way past title rival Max Verstappen into turn one but his charge to victory unravelled when Red Bull switched the Dutchman onto an aggressive two-stop strategy early on.

The pit stop allowed an undercut on Hamilton to give Verstappen track position and whilst the Briton chased down the championship leader in the closing stages, time expired before an attack could be mounted.

Asked what Mercedes could have done differently at the Circuit of the Americas, Shovlin replied: "Had a crystal ball perhaps and realised the hard tyre would have been a better tyre for us.

"Realistically, the options to win the race probably boiled down to retaining the lead after the very good start that Lewis had made by stopping early.

"That would have, maybe been going as early as lap eight but being as we were struggling on the mediums in such a short stint, we would never have been brave enough to do that just to hold the lead, it felt like we would have compromised the whole race.

"But as it happens, we could have gone for an early stop, we could have got to the finish but it would have just been the case of pull the trigger early, hope for the best and seeing if Lewis could hold Max at bay. That is the main opportunity."

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