How Mercedes got strategy “terribly wrong” in “catastrophic” F1 British GP

“When it rains, it pours.” Geroge Russell perfectly summed up a forgettable British Grand Prix for Mercedes as its catalogue of strategy call errors sank the Silver Arrows in the Silverstone rain.

Russell qualified fourth for the Silverstone race, with team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli down in 10th after he was hit with a three-place grid penalty held over from the Austrian Grand Prix. It was not an ideal qualifying session on the Saturday, but Sunday’s race went from bad to worse and Russell took a lone point as Antonelli was forced to retire.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff labelled the decision to pit Russell after the formation lap to switch from intermediates to slicks as “terribly wrong,” while Antonelli’s early stop under a virtual safety car only compounded the errors.

Asked if it had been Russell’s decision, rather than the team’s, to twice box for slicks in difficult conditions, Wolff replied: “Well, the driver is team. We’re all in this together. But the first call, or the first decision from within the car and the people was terribly wrong.

“That kind of made us spiral from bad to worse, because that triggered the stop for Kimi. When you see where Kimi was running, we should have simply kept him out with a split strategy and probably we would have been where Nico Hulkenberg was [third], because he was ahead of him.

“That’s not to diminish Nico’s driving, which from far away looked very good. When we had the wrong tyre on the car, because we believed the medium wouldn’t last with us, because Friday was so bad. Another wrong decision. And then, obviously, the second stop was probably even more wrong than the first one, and that was basically the guillotine that fell.

“I think all of us together had a robust chat up there and everybody acknowledges that the first decision was actually the catastrophic one.”

Mercedes was not the only squad playing chicken with the Northamptonshire rain clouds, but it suffered badly at almost every turn.

While Antonelli was forced to retire after being rammed from behind by Isack Hadjar, Russell ended up with just one point having pushed over the radio to once again take the gamble and pit for slicks, even after being told it could be a “suicidal” move.

“I think by that stage he was stuck behind Gasly because the car’s performance was poor and he wasn’t able to pass. And then probably an act of being contrarian and doing something that is totally different than the others and hoping for a better outcome,” explained Wolff.

Russell defended the option to pit at the beginning of the grand prix, arguing that the strategy was compromised by an early virtual safety car.

“I think pitting at the beginning was not a stupid decision because it was dry for 25 minutes,” he said. 

George Russell, Mercedes

Photo by: Andy Hone / LAT Images via Getty Images

“What we didn’t know is it would be 15 minutes of virtual safety car. When the virtual safety car ended, we had five seconds pace advantage over the guys on the inters. If only we had the whole stint of this, maybe we would have got back into the lead. But when it rains, it pours, and everything just went against us.

“In our position, if you play it safe, you’ll come home with a safe result. Of course, that would have probably been P4. Standing here now, do I wish I had P4? Of course.

“We wanted to be bold; we wanted to be brave. We went for some bold decisions and ultimately it bit.”