Mercedes fully assumes having asked George Russell to give up his second place to Kimi Antonelli at Zandvoort despite their positions in the championship.
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Mercedes does not regret the instruction given to George Russell during the Dutch Grand Prix. While the Briton had just regained second position after the stop of Kimi Antonelli under virtual safety car, the team asked him to let his teammate pass again, better shod, in order to allow him to try to catch up with Lando Norris.
A decision far from trivial since the two Mercedes drivers are directly opposed in the title race. By giving up his position, Russell potentially accepted a six-point differential in favor of Antonelli. The team assures however that this scenario had been anticipated even before the start.
Mercedes wanted to give Antonelli a chance
The intervention of the virtual safety car caused by Esteban Ocon’s retirement had offered Mercedes a strategic opportunity. Second, Antonelli took advantage of it to put on fresher tires and lost only one position, behind Russell.
The Briton could not benefit from the same free stop. If he had also gone through the pits, he would have come out behind a Ferrari and thus endangered a place on the podium. Mercedes therefore decided to keep Russell on track before restoring the previous order between its two drivers.
Bradley Lord, deputy team principal, assures that Mercedes was not particularly afraid of the Briton’s reaction. “George naturally questioned the instruction when he received it, but he understood the situation as a whole”, he explains.
A rule defined before the start
The decision was mainly based on discussions held before the race. Mercedes had warned its drivers that the small performance difference between the different teams would make an internal battle particularly costly.
“We were very clear during the Sunday morning strategic meeting: the pack was too tight for our drivers to lose time fighting each other. This discussion served as the basis for our decision”, Lord specifies.
Mercedes also states that Russell would have benefited from exactly the same treatment if the roles had been reversed. The championship standings were therefore not supposed to determine the strategy used.
“If the circumstances had been reversed, we would have acted exactly the same way. The priority was to give the car in second position the best chances to attack, while offering the one in third clean air and the best possibility to defend its position.”
Russell paid the operation in the championship
For Russell, this decision nevertheless had a direct consequence in the title fight. The Briton had won the Zandvoort Sprint and gained three points on Antonelli, momentarily reducing his deficit.
But with Antonelli second in the Grand Prix and Russell third, the gap finally returned to 59 points, exactly the margin that separated the two drivers before the start of the Dutch weekend.
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The Briton also had to defend his third place against the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. A particularly intense battle from which he ultimately emerged victorious, helped by a new virtual safety car at the end of the race.
Mercedes considered another tactic
Once it became clear that Antonelli would probably not catch Norris, Mercedes could have used the Italian to help Russell resist the Ferraris. The team did indeed study this possibility.
The idea was notably to temporarily bring the two Mercedes closer so that Russell would benefit from an additional advantage thanks to the overtaking mode. According to Andrew Shovlin, track engineering director, the potential gain was about two tenths of a second, mainly on the straight.
“We discussed it. The gain was about two tenths, mainly on the straight, which was precisely where George was most vulnerable”, confirms Shovlin.
Mercedes did not want to take risks
The team finally considered that this maneuver presented more risks than benefits. With cars so sensitive when following each other very closely, Mercedes feared notably complicating the situation unnecessarily between its two drivers.
“We were concerned about trying something we had not rehearsed and that could have put our two cars in a complicated situation. Since the lap gain was not huge, we decided it was better for Kimi to move away cleanly and leave clean air to George.”
Russell could thus optimize his corner exits and braking to contain the two Ferraris. A decision that ultimately proved rewarding since the Briton kept his third position until the finish.
Shovlin impressed by Russell’s defense
Mercedes nevertheless acknowledges that the mission entrusted to its driver was particularly delicate. Hamilton and Leclerc had enough pace to represent a real threat in the last laps.
“With these cars, you can’t follow at two tenths. Ferrari’s best chance was to get a run in the last corner or to attack very late on the brakes”, details Shovlin.
The Mercedes official does not hide his admiration for the resistance offered by Russell. “You might not even have given him 50% chance to keep the two Ferraris behind him. The virtual safety car helped him calm the situation for a lap or two and manage his energy, but his defense was superb.”
Mercedes therefore fully assumes its choice: the priority was to maximize Antonelli’s chances of victory without sacrificing Russell’s podium. A strategy that worked collectively, even if it canceled all the benefits of the Sprint for Russell in his chase for the championship leader.
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