Mercedes have accepted the ‘lesson’ from George Russell’s frustrations after the Mexican Grand Prix. The British racer took issue with the speed of decision-making on the pit wall after requesting to be let past by team-mate Kimi Antonelli, in a bid to hunt down Oliver Bearman ahead of him.
At the time, Bearman was running in third on his strategy, although this was later bumped down to fourth at the chequered flag after Max Verstappen stormed through the field. Russell, meanwhile, was stuck behind team-mate Antonelli, with Oscar Piastri chasing both of the Mercedes drivers down from behind.
Russell first made the request on lap 35, but despite issuing a stern reminder to race engineer Marcus Dudley, he wasn’t let through to hunt down the Haas car until lap 41. The pursuit proved unsuccessful, and the 27-year-old later lost a spot to Piastri after a smart move at Turn One.
“Yeah, I mean, I had a lot of pace in those laps and would have been able to attack Ollie, who had no DRS,” he told Sky Sports F1 after climbing out of the car. “Obviously, I was in the DRS train behind Kimi. I think we left it 10 laps.
“By that point, my tyres overheated, my brakes were overheating. The engine was overheating. So by that point, there was sort of no point in doing it. It was either do it straight away or don’t do it at all. So in the end, we deserve to finish where we did. A bit frustrating.”
Fortunately for Russell and Antonelli, Mercedes have taken their drivers’ feedback on board. Chief communications officer Bradley Lord explained the situation and what the Silver Arrows will do differently moving forward.
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“It was a really tricky situation,” he noted. “We had Kimi driving in a way to manage his tyres, managing to a one-stop and doing exactly what was being asked of him. George was obviously under pressure from Piastri closing that gap and then in the dirty air, using more of his tyres because of that and also feeling that he had pace to get past.
“We did eventually decide to swap, and I think in hindsight, regardless of whether we decided to hold position or swap, it was the delay that didn’t work out for us.” Lord then added: “It was very difficult to overtake in Mexico with the low downforce, very difficult with the dirty air phenomenon that seems more penalising now than at any part of these rules since 2022.
“So it was a tricky situation, and we probably didn’t get everything right in how we managed it. The lesson is really that we should have been more decisive either in asking to hold position or swapping the positions rather than waiting the time we did.”
