Mercedes were left ‘in the woods’ with Singapore Grand Prix tyre issue they couldn’t solve

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Mercedes suffered a difficult afternoon in Singapore Grand Prix after both drivers finished outside of the top three places.

Lewis Hamilton lined up third on the grid but had a disappointing run due to the tyre strategy Mercedes elected to run him on in the opening stint.

While the medium tyre was the compound of choice for most drivers at the start, the seven-time World Champion elected to run a used set of soft tyres to overtake Max Verstappen but was blocked on the run into Turn 1.

This set Hamilton on a negative spiral for the rest of the opening stint after he was left exposed to those on the medium tyres, with an early stop eventually putting him behind teammate George Russell.

Hamilton highlighted the poor strategy with his Mercedes engineers, in what appeared to show that the seven-time World Champion is no longer in the pre-race strategy meetings.

Things did not fare better for Russell, who finished in third place and 61 seconds off race winner Lando Norris. Discussing their problems on the Formel Schmidt podcast, journalist Michael Schmidt highlighted the issue both drivers had at Mercedes during the Singapore GP.

Mercedes blighted by tyre temperature problems in Singapore

Even with Hamilton’s tyre problems at the start of the race, in the second stint both drivers suffered badly from overheating rears when they switched to the hard tyre.

The hard tyre worked well for Mercedes at the Azerbaijan GP, but around the newly laid tarmac of the Marina Bay Street Circuit they suffered badly from wear.

This perplexed Mercedes according to Schmidt, who believe the team is now fighting a problem is does not understand.

“On Sunday it went in exactly the other direction and the old thing was back to normal, a problem with the rear tyres overheating. Strangely this time with the hard tyres more than with the medium tyres,” said Schmidt.

“The hard tyre was actually good in Baku and Hamilton was as fast as the winners at the end, and this time nothing worked so they were a bit in the woods when it came to tyre temperatures.”

George Russell knew ‘moment’ Lewis Hamilton would be unhappy during Singapore GP

Hamilton eventually finished the race in sixth but 85 seconds off Norris and 24 seconds behind Russell, and was unhappy with the gamble his team made at the start.

Russell knew before the race that Hamilton would not approve of the start tyre choice, which ultimately ended up benefitting him as he finished ahead of his teammate for the third time in three races.

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All of this points to Hamilton potentially no longer being part of the Mercedes pre-race briefings, in which teams go over their strategy options and plans hours before the start of a race.

It is likely Hamilton is no longer part of these in the latter stages of the season due to his impending move to Ferrari at the end of the season.