Lewis Hamilton, after qualifying third for the Singapore Grand Prix, was the only driver in the top 10 to start on the soft tires, while those around him, opted for the medium-compound ones.

Mercedes had hoped Hamilton would outpace Max Verstappen, who started in P2, right off the line, but when that didn’t happen, his strategy fell apart. He was forced into an early pit stop for hard tires, which weren’t working in the Singapore heat very well.

That caused a later overcut from Hamilton’s teammate George Russell with Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc also capitalizing on fresh tires, pushing the seven-time F1 champion down to sixth place by the finish. Afterwards, Hamilton expressed how "angry" he was about the decision.

Mercedes' Technical Director, James Allison, has admitted that it was a "clear mistake" on the team's part and that they should’ve listened to Hamilton the day before.

"Before I give the explanation [as to why Hamilton was on softs], I just want to start off by saying we shouldn't have started on the softs, it was a mistake and if we could turn back time, we would do what those around us did in selecting the mediums," said Allison quoted by RacingNews365.

"The reasoning was that the soft tyre very often allows you to get away from the start abruptly and allows you a good chance of jumping a place or two in the opening laps of the race.

"We had no real expectation before the race that we were going to suffer the sort of difficulties that we experienced on the soft rubber, and imagined that we would get the upside of it. 

"We didn't and then hoped that the downside of the soft being fragile wouldn't play out particularly badly. 

"The pace starts very easily in Singapore, and drivers then build up the pace over many laps, leaving the soft perfectly okay to run relatively deeply into the pit-window, but we didn't get the place at the start. 

"The pace started building up and that left Lewis with a car that was not particularly happy, suffering from quite poor degradation, and needing to come in early as a consequence. 

"It ruined his race and it was a clear mistake,” he concluded.

The Team Principal of Mercedes, Toto Wolff, also addressed the situation.

"I think we’ve read the race wrong,” said Wolff quoted by Autosport.

"We took a decision based on historic Singapore races where it is basically a procession, Monaco-like, and that the soft tyre would give him an opportunity at the start.

"That was pretty much the only overtaking opportunity. That was the wrong decision that we all took together jointly.

"It felt like a good offset but with the rear tyre degradation that we had it was just one way and that was backwards.

"There was a logic behind it, but obviously it was contrary to what we should’ve decided.

"It doesn’t hide away from the fact that the car is too slow. Maybe the opposition are ahead or behind but that doesn’t change anything."