Toto Wolff has explained the insight he offers during the process of making strategy calls in a race. Alongside their Chief Strategist, James Vowles, Mercedes have a team comprising of staff at their base in Brackley involved in making such decisions. Wolff is also a key contributor and likens the procedure to brainstorming. "There's a great group of people in Brackley who obviously have all the tools and math behind it," Wolff told media, including RacingNews365.com . "And that is being discussed on the strategy channel between the Brackley base and James, the pit wall and myself. "It's a brainstorm, and I need to be [involved]. I'm very involved in the decision-making process, in terms of [that] they run – [and] James runs – his strategy thinking past me. "I would only give the feedback that I have because I have more bandwidth. I'm not looking at the specific data channel, but I'm able to look at the intercom, the audio messaging from the other team and obviously [see] how the race pans out." Wolff says he is a "sounding board" and "sparring partner" for Vowles, and plays a "pretty active" role in how the strategy unfolds. The focus on this comes after strategy decisions turned out to be a key aspect of the United States Grand Prix, with Red Bull able to utilise the undercut to get Max Verstappen ahead of Lewis Hamilton at the front. It initially appeared that the decision to have a longer second stint may have backfired for Red Bull later in the race, as Hamilton began to cut into Verstappen's lead. However, the Dutchman was able to pull out the gap in the last few laps and held on to the victory. With five races remaining in the season, Hamilton trails Verstappen in the World Championship standings by 12 points.
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