Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff believes Williams were in unfamiliar territory at the British GP and probably didn't want to risk a good team result.
Williams' strategy at Silverstone raised a few eyebrows on Sunday after they ordered Valtteri Bottas not to pass team-mate and race leader Felipe Massa early on before later changing their minds and telling him he can overtake if it's a "clean pass and he gets away quickly".
Lewis Hamilton went on to lead home another Merc 1-2 and Williams missed out on a podium altogether as Sebastian Vettel from Ferrari came from lower down the order to nick the final podium place after pitting earlier for intermediate tyres.
Wolff admits he has a bit of sympathy for those on the Grove squad's pit wall.
"Sometimes I had a bit of deja vu like us in 2013 when you find yourself in P1 and P2 and you're surprised," he said.
"You don't want to risk the team result because it's so amazing.
"It's so easy to say what someone should have done, but I'm not in there and I think they probably got caught on the wrong foot."
He added: "Probably Valtteri could have built a gap if they let him go."
Another contentious issue was Williams' decision not to pit one of their drivers before their Mercedes rivals, both on the first stop and the switch to intermediate tyres.
"We know Williams have more difficulty in making the tyres last," Wolff said.
"We knew that triggering an early stop would make them think we were able to [make the tyres last] and could have caused them problems at the end.
"But they knew they needed more time. For them it was too early, too marginal.
"It would have been too difficult on the prime tyre to finish the race [with an earlier stop]."
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