By Ed Valentine
Track position was everything at the Catalonia circuit as Hamilton crossed the line 0.6 of a second ahead of his team mate and rival Nico Rosberg to take the chequered flag. Strategy was crucial and was the deciding factor in what was a closely fought battle over the 66 laps. Each of the Mercedes pair traded tenths of a second through every sector of the Grand Prix. Blow for blow like heavyweight titans waiting for the moment to land the knock out punch it was part bare knuckle fight part chess match in an arena of game theory that John Von Neumann would have been proud of.
This was an excellent example of how economics is played out in Formula 1 as Nico opted to change strategy midway through the race and run the harder tyre for the second stint rather than the third. This was an attempt to get the slower (hard) tyre out of the way only to get the optimum benefit from the medium (and slightly faster) compound for the final stint with a lighter fuel weighted car. Why did he decide to do this and not follow Hamilton’s strategy? Nico had to do something different as Hamilton was 3.7 seconds up the road heading into the first round of stops. Perhaps the German realised that he could get quicker times on the medium tyre in the third stint than Hamilton could get in the second due to having a lighter car (as the fuel depleted). Rosberg’s plan worked as he managed to pump in faster laps on his 2nd medium tyre phase than Hamilton did.
So if this was the case how did Nico Rosberg not manage to pass Lewis Hamilton?
Track position was everything at the Catalonia circuit as Hamilton crossed the line 0.6 of a second ahead of his team mate and rival Nico Rosberg to take the chequered flag. Strategy was crucial and was the deciding factor in what was a closely fought battle over the 66 laps. Each of the Mercedes pair traded tenths of a second through every sector of the Grand Prix. Blow for blow like heavyweight titans waiting for the moment to land the knock out punch it was part bare knuckle fight part chess match in an arena of game theory that John Von Neumann would have been proud of.
This was an excellent example of how economics is played out in Formula 1 as Nico opted to change strategy midway through the race and run the harder tyre for the second stint rather than the third. This was an attempt to get the slower (hard) tyre out of the way only to get the optimum benefit from the medium (and slightly faster) compound for the final stint with a lighter fuel weighted car. Why did he decide to do this and not follow Hamilton’s strategy? Nico had to do something different as Hamilton was 3.7 seconds up the road heading into the first round of stops. Perhaps the German realised that he could get quicker times on the medium tyre in the third stint than Hamilton could get in the second due to having a lighter car (as the fuel depleted). Rosberg’s plan worked as he managed to pump in faster laps on his 2nd medium tyre phase than Hamilton did.
So if this was the case how did Nico Rosberg not manage to pass Lewis Hamilton?
The crucial and race deciding phase occurred between laps 44 and 46 with the second round of pit stops. When Hamiltonpitted for the second time he came out 19.6 seconds behind his team mate. Time lost in the pits is about 21 – 22 seconds so Rosberg would have needed to have built a further 2 – 3 seconds during those extra two laps in order to come out in front. Instead he lost a total of 2.2 seconds during this cross over phase and would have needed to over take Hamiltonon the road in order to win. He didn’t manage it as he just couldn’t erode the deficit quickly enough – he ran out of laps
Looking back Rosberg will kick himself as it’s obvious he stayed out for one lap too long. He couldn’t have pitted on lap 44 because that’s when Hamilton did so by stopping on lap 45 he would not have lost the 1.158 seconds on lap 46. What adds insult to injury is that as soon as Rosberg got the fresher tyres he was .3 of a second quicker than Hamilton. The German needed this .3 of a second one lap earlier instead of losing 1.158s. This was where the Spanish GP of 2014 was won and lost.
The F1 party rolls in to Monaco in two weeks time as a 1000 of Formula 1’s new best friends will descend on the paddock to gorge in the glamour. It’s a circuit where overtaking is impossible so strategy will be more key than at any other race in the calendar. It will be a race between the Mercedes pair but the winner will be largely a function of who has best studied their economics during the fortnight break.
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