Toto Wolff praised Red Bull for winning the US GP, saying that they showed courage and passion to secure victory.
Mercedes gave Red Bull a run for their money, with Lewis Hamilton getting very close to race leader Max Verstappen. However the combination of a slice of luck and Red Bull’s brave strategy meant the Dutchman narrowly pipped Hamilton to the win.
The team gambled on undercutting to put Mercedes behind them. It was a risky move, but it ultimately paid off thanks to Verstappen’s pace on fresher tyres.
Wolff praised Red Bull for winning the US GP, and conceded that their strategy was praiseworthy and courageous.
“You could see the different strategies,” Wolff said, as quoted by crash.net.
“One team that went for the undercut out of necessity, and a very courageous move, because it was very early. And the second time again to their advantage.
“Max’s driving, particularly in the last stint, you could see that he had learned from the first stint not to damage the tyres too early because he had something left at the end.
“We were just on the back foot because the car was not fast enough on the first stint on the medium. And we couldn’t possibly have gone for an early stop, because based on the data that we had on the medium, it didn’t look like we could finish the race on a two-stop if we pitted earlier.”
Almost there
“Then Lewis did drive awesomely. He brought the tyre in, remained calm even though we had six and a half seconds and on the second stop eight and a half seconds to Max.
“He brought it in, increased the pace and at a certain stage there was just a massive difference. And that was brilliantly executed but just not close enough at the end. If we would have had maybe two laps more, who knows?
“But it is what it is and you need to congratulate Red Bull for their stops,” he concluded.
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