Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff believes that a “software issue” caused Lewis Hamilton to lose the Australian Grand Prix race lead to Sebastian Vettel while under a virtual safety car.
Polesitter Hamilton had led the race during the opening stages, with Kimi Raikkonen second and Vettel third.
Raikkonen and Hamilton pitted on lap 18 and 19 of the 58-lap race, leaving Vettel on track as the race leader. When a virtual safety car was deployed at mid-distance, Vettel pitted and emerged just ahead of Hamilton to take the lead.
Mercedes believed that Hamilton – who was 12 seconds ahead of Vettel on track when the virtual safety car was deployed – had “a three-second margin” in hand over Ferrari for when Vettel emerged from the pits. This was a miscalculation.
“I think we have a software issue with the virtual safety car delta,” Wolff stated when speaking to Sky immediately after the race. “We have a bug somewhere that told us that 15 seconds is what you need to pit [under virtual safety car]. We had 12 seconds [over Vettel] but it wasn’t enough.
“The way the algorithms are set up and the way the computer is programmed gave us the green light to say that the gap is enough to stay ahead and then we saw the TV pictures it wasn’t enough.”
Vettel was one of several drivers to benefit from the timing of the virtual safety car, deployed in response to Romain Grosjean’s stranded Haas.
In Formula 2 – F1’s second-tier series – drivers are not permitted to make a pitstop while the virtual safety car is deployed, in order to ensure that no advantage is able to be gained during the phase.
When asked if pitstops during virtual safety car periods should be banned in F1, Wolff admitted; “It’ll work for you one time and then in another it will go against you. And we’ve had lucky moments, we were unlucky today and have been in the past.
“I think you need to give credit to Ferrari for first and third. We saw three teams doing competitive lap times today and I think that is what we need to take as a positive.”
