Mark Hughes on why George Russell was angry

Mark Hughes, a British journalist working for the championship’s official website, analyzed the events of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix and discovered how they could have developed if Mercedes had trusted George Russell’s intuition.

At the start of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, George Russell took the lead, but on the 27th lap of the race, as the rain became heavier, he started to have problems with aquaplaning, as the intermediate tires were already quite worn.

If he could have seen anything in the mirrors, he would have found Lando Norris’ McLaren looming behind his Mercedes from the very start of the race. The W15 was probably not as fast as the McLaren in qualifying, but in the race there was room for higher speeds on straights.

As DRS could not be used in wet conditions, the speed advantage at the end of the straights was enough to keep Russell ahead of Norris lap after lap. George’s performance behind the wheel of the W15 was impressive and required full concentration.

But the increasing rain occurred simultaneously with the wear of the tires, although in fact this was exactly Mercedes’ plan: wait for this moment, and then make a pit stop and put new tires on Russell’s car. However, the grip started to deteriorate sharply and he began to suspect that red flags might appear. And in this case it would be necessary to stay on the track as long as possible to maintain a leading position by the time the race is stopped.

This way he saw the possible development of events from the cockpit. But from the point of view of those at the Mercedes pit wall, the implementation of such a plan was complicated by a number of factors. The weather radar showed that the rain of this intensity would continue for about 10 minutes, after which it would almost stop.

The cars of Russell and Norris went wheel to wheel at some points, and it is not a fact that the race management would have decided to put out red flags just because of the difficult conditions. Before taking such a drastic measure, you can always first place a safety car on the track, which would keep the peloton waiting at low speed for the peak of the bad weather.

If a safety car were to come out, it would also be risky to continue driving on old tires. During a pit stop you can lose a lot of positions depending on where you are in the lap in relation to the pit lane entrance when the pack starts to gather.

Furthermore, Mercedes tried to predict what actions Norris would take, and there was an element of tactical play in that. McLaren would probably have tried to get ahead of Russell by making an earlier pit stop, because Lando on fresh tires would have gone faster than George on worn tires.

Overall, there were several factors that made Mercedes decide to quickly invite their driver to the pits.

“I had problems with the tires, aquaplaning started,” said Russell after the finish. “It was so bad that I had trouble keeping the car on the track.”

And just a few seconds later, Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas spun, introducing the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) mode. When Russell’s engineer reported this to his driver, he responded: “I think the conditions here are almost time for the red flags. Very heavy rain.”

George clearly hinted that we should stay on the track for the time being.

“Now we are going to make a pit stop and install the next set of intermediate tires,” he heard in response.

“I thought the race would be stopped with red flags. “She had to be stopped,” George continued. – It was difficult for me to keep the car on the track, even at lower speed in VSC mode. The risk of accidents was very high and I thought we should stay on the track until the red flags.”

But Mercedes decided differently and Russell turned into the pit lane. He came in directly ahead of Norris, who was called to the pits on the same lap, while Esteban Ocon, Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly remained on track.

Complicating matters was the fact that VSC ended just as Russell and Norris entered the pit lane, meaning they could save nothing compared to the pit stop time required under normal racing conditions. This left Ocon, Verstappen and Gasly in the lead, which would not have happened if the VSC regime had not been abolished.

In addition, Norris managed to stay ahead of Russell on the track, and now the Mercedes driver, who was recently in the lead, fell back to 5th position.

The heavy rain continued and everyone had to slow down to avoid hydroplaning and being thrown off the track, and race control released the safety car. In theory, this could have been bad news for Ocon, Verstappen and Gasly, who were left waiting for the restart on old tires and faced the prospect of losing many positions at a pit stop.

However, Esteban, Max and Pierre were saved by the fact that Franco Colapinto crashed his Williams when there was already a safety car on the track: he lost control of the car when he accelerated at the exit of Turn 13. And then the moment came what Russell had hoped for some time ago: red flags appeared.

‘I told you so! – George was angry with the radio. “We should have stayed on the track!”

Without this accident, and the peloton would have gathered behind the safety car to wait out the worst of the rain, Bernd Mailander would have returned to the pits in his Aston Martin around lap 42, when there were still 27 laps to go. the breed.

If Russell had stayed on track as he wanted, he would probably have been in the lead at the restart, followed by Ocon, Verstappen and Gasly, all of whom would have been on worn tires, and they would of course have been quickly overtaken by Norris, who had received a fresh set of intermediate rubber.

It is of course impossible to say how everything would have gone in such a scenario, but what is certain is that the results of the race would have been different and Russell would have had a real chance to repeat his 2022 success. , when he won at this track.