Toto Wolff feels Daniel Ricciardo's medium-soft tire strategy at Mexico City 'would have been basically the reverse strategy' for Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff feels that the strategy used by McLaren for Daniel Ricciardo would not have helped Lewis Hamilton at the 2022 F1 Mexican Grand Prix.

Wolff believes it would have been a 'reverse' strategy for them. He told Motorsport.com that the gap between Mercedes and Red Bull was far too great, and a medium-soft strategy wasn't going to help, either. Toto said:

"I don't think we could have overtaken them, because [with] the gaps, that would have been basically the reverse strategy."

The Mexican Grand Prix saw a mix of strategies at the start of the race. However, while the Red Bulls started off with faster soft tires, Mercedes had the mediums on, playing for a one-stop strategy.

This indicated that both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell would run on the mediums for some time before shifting to the hard tires, which, they did. On lap 29, Hamilton pitted for the hards, and Russell followed him up five laps later, on lap 34. This stint was supposed to help them catch up with the cars in front, but they could not do so.

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However, the tires didn't suit the drivers well. Soon after fitting them on, both Hamilton and Russell complained about the choice. They struggled with the tires, and Russell even asked the team if it was possible to change the tires in the final stage of the race.

While Russell did so on the 69th lap to clinch the fastest lap of the race, Lewis Hamilton stayed out on the hard compound and finished the race behind Max Verstappen in P2. The gap between the two drivers was a whopping 15 seconds.

Toto Wolff admits Lewis Hamilton would have been advantaged by the soft-medium strategy

While Toto Wolff believes that a medium-soft strategy would have been a reverse of the medium-hard one, he does believe that starting the race on a soft compound would have closed the gap to an extent for Lewis Hamilton. Toto said:

"Even the soft-medium, that would have been a bit of an advantage into Turn 1. Lewis was on the outside, so you never know how it would have come. But we would have been even closer on a different strategy."

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Though Wolff was not so sure with the medium-soft strategy, Daniel Ricciardo definitely was. Ricciardo pulled off the medium-soft strategy perfectly in McLaren.

The Australian driver started the race on the medium compound and took it to an extent. He pitted on the 44th lap for the soft tires and running those grippy tires for the final 27 laps turned out to be perfect for him. Ricciardo finished P7 and even though he had a 10-second penalty, he kept his position because Esteban Ocon was 12 seconds behind him when the race ended.

Toto Wolff, like many other drivers, was surprised to see the length the medium tires ran for. He said:

"That the medium held on for so long at the end came as a surprise."

He stated that the team would have been on a different strategy if the race restarted, reflecting that alternate strategies for both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell might have been advantageous for Mercedes.