Why Mercedes had the right car at the right time in Vegas

Pre-race in Vegas, the expectation was unanimous: it would be a one-stop, just as it had been last year. Even Pirelli’s tyre selection of the softest combination in its range (C3/4/5) wasn’t expected to lead to the levels of thermal degradation or wear to require stopping twice. The corners are short and generally slow and the tyre-cooling back straight is the second-longest of the season.

But the tyre challenge changed. Partly because track grip was even lower than in ’23, partly because it was even colder – and partly because Pirelli had increased the minimum pressure of the front to an unprecedented 29psi. This combination promoted graining – and caught almost everyone by surprise.

The graining is triggered by the tread surface being hard and brittle, tearing off the edges of the tread when put under load. With a track temperature of 12°C, cold graining of the right-front was first flagged up as an issue by Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari as he attempted to overtake George Russell for the lead on lap four in a manoeuvre which lasted for several corners. This forced him to back off for a lap or two to bring the tyre back to life, during which time he allowed team-mate Carlos Sainz to pass. But to Ferrari’s surprise, the front-right did not recover. Instead it grained – as did that of Sainz. Everyone apart from the Mercedes then began to suffer the same.

“Several drivers chose to push hard right from the start,” observed Pirelli’s Mario Isola, “without giving much thought to tyre management. So some of them suffered more than expected with graining, which triggered a chain reaction and pushed everyone towards a two-stop, especially as they knew they could count on two sets of hard tyres, which was without a doubt the most competitive compound.”

Mercedes, with Russell in the lead and Lewis Hamilton coming through the field from his 10th place starting position, was not suffering. The W15 generates temperature in its front tyres quicker than its rivals and that kept the tyres from graining.

The team was adamant afterwards it could comfortably have done the race, stopping only once as originally planned. Instead, it covered off the early stops of Ferrari so as not to be vulnerable on old tyres in any safety car restart. The Mercedes 1-2 was among the most dominant performances of 2024.