Russell: I said we needed to stay on track

It’s a missed victory opportunity for Mercedes this Sunday at the Interlagos circuit. Already a winner in 2022, George Russell had the opportunity to repeat this performance after a promising weekend for the British driver.

A convincing rhythm throughout the weekend

From the first free practice session, where he finished second, the winner of this season’s Austrian Grand Prix showed that he was fast behind the wheel of a single-seater that is nevertheless difficult to maneuver, as evidenced by his teammate Lewis Hamilton’s difficult race, struggling with his car. Eventually sixth in the sprint qualifying, the Briton finished in the same position during the Saturday race. It was a performance expected for Russell, aware that his car didn’t have the pace to fight for the top positions. « This is exactly what we expected. We are isolated between the top 5 and the other group. This is the situation we are in at the moment. »

« I finish six seconds behind Carlos [Sainz] and six seconds ahead of [Pierre] Gasly, it’s exactly what we expected. We have to continue to improve, but we won’t have a car for pole position by the time of the qualifications. » However, during the qualifications, postponed to Sunday morning due to the bad weather conditions on Saturday, Russell achieves an excellent performance on a wet track, with a second place on the grid, behind Lando Norris’s McLaren. When asked about this performance, the former Williams driver revealed that he simply wanted to have a good race after two consecutive weekends where he made mistakes and damaged his Mercedes.

A well-controlled first part of the race

On a still wet track, it is the British driver who makes the best start and takes the lead position from his compatriot Lando Norris. An ideal situation for Russell, who is no longer disturbed by the spray from the car in front of him and can thus control the race. « It was very difficult, but we were comfortable in the early laps, everything was under control. I had a 12-second lead over third place, I was managing the gap to Lando. » However, on the 28th lap, everything changes for the Mercedes driver.

A strategic mistake on Mercedes’ part.

After Nico Hülkenberg’s incident, the stewards decide to deploy the virtual safety car. However, this announcement comes after Russell and Norris have crossed the finish line. One lap later, they both decide to stop for a new set of intermediate tires. However, the rain intensifies, prompting the FIA to deploy the Safety Car due to the track conditions being too dangerous. As the drivers line up behind the car driven by Bernd Mayländer, Franco Colapinto loses control of his Williams in turn 15, leading to the appearance of the red flag. An ideal decision for the top three in the race: Ocon, Verstappen, and Gasly, who can thus change tires for free.

Finally fourth, just behind Pierre Gasly, Russell did not hide his frustration at the end of the Grand Prix. The Briton regrets that the team did not listen to him and did not follow the example of Spa, where he had been the only front-runner to make only one pit stop, which had allowed him to win the race before being eventually disqualified. « Very painful, all things considered, not much to say really. It was ‘stand’. I said ‘stay out’. It was ‘stand’ again, I said ‘stay out’. And they said ‘stand’ again. I said I wanted to stay out. And at the last moment, you have to go… Sometimes you have to trust your instincts. The last time I trusted my instincts, it went well. »

Is a victory possible?

The Mercedes driver would have liked the team to follow his instructions, as he believes he is better placed to analyze the race and know the track conditions. According to him, his result could have been better. From the cockpit, it was very clear that it was going to be a red flag or a safety car, because the conditions were untenable. And then I had Shov [Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes trackside engineering director] who spoke up to cancel my engineer’s instructions and say “stand.” Today, who knows if we could have won the race? but if we hadn’t come into the pits, we would have been leading at the restart, controlling the pace for the first 30 laps. With Lando behind us, we also had a very good top speed. P2 would have been a minimum.

« Clearly, the drivers who did not stop finished 1-2-3 and we ended up leading the drivers who did. So, I can take some satisfaction from that.

» The result remains nevertheless satisfactory for the British driver and allows him to overtake his teammate in the drivers’ standings. However, victory was possible this weekend, and the team will therefore need to be able to better optimize its races in the last three rounds of the season if it wants to give one of its drivers a final victory in 2024.