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’. 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. Mercedes have been open about the fact that the car, in this moment, is not in a position to compete for race wins. ‘I think it was such a difficult race, we struggled through practice,’ Hamilton said afterwards.

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