Mercedes’ Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton.

After Lewis Hamilton criticised the choice to start on soft tyres in Singapore, something which he said was a Mercedes call that he fought against, team boss Toto Wolff explained that it was all about the start.

Hamilton hit pause on his qualifying struggles which have frustrated him at times in F1 2024 to secure P3 on the Singapore grid, as he shared the second row with Mercedes team-mate George Russell. But while Russell followed the crowd by starting on mediums, Hamilton had softs fitted for the opening stint, which did not please the seven-time World Champion.

Toto Wolff defends Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton strategy gamble

After pitting on Lap 17 to ditch the softs, Hamilton was overcut by Russell and ultimately finished P6, Hamilton claiming he had tried to talk Mercedes out of splitting the strategies, but to no avail, a move which left him “perplexed”.

“We sat in our meeting in the morning of the race, actually the night before they already mentioned that they would like to split the cars,” said Hamilton at an event for Mercedes’ partner Petronas.

“And for me, I was a bit perplexed by it. Because in the past, when we’ve ever been in that position… Normally if George has qualified well like he normally does and I’m out of the top 10 or something, then we’ll split the strategies, but we were so close. It didn’t make sense to me.

“So I battled as hard as I could to fight to go on the medium tyre, but the team continued to suggest that I started on the soft.

“And then when they took the tyre blankets off, everyone was on mediums…

“I was so angry.”

However, Wolff insists that there was “logic” to Mercedes’ decision, as they hoped to give Hamilton an advantage at the start and trigger some overtaking opportunities, arguing that they would be limited after that.

“I think we’ve read the race wrong,” Wolff told the media after the Singapore Grand Prix.

“We took a decision based on historic Singapore where it’s basically a procession, Monaco-like, and that the soft tyre would give him an opportunity at the start as pretty much the only overtaking opportunity.

“And that was the wrong decision that we all took together jointly. Felt like a good offset. But with the rear tyre deg that we had, there was just one way, that was backwards.

“So I think there was a logic behind it, but obviously was contrary of what we should have decided.

“But it doesn’t hide away from the fact that when a car is too slow, you’re too slow. Maybe you’re a position ahead or behind. That doesn’t change anything.”

Russell would cross the line as the highest-placed Mercedes driver in P4.