Local hero George Russell swapped his fourth place on the grid for slicks before the start – a gamble that didn’t pay off for Mercedes
In the end, the Silver Arrows from Silverstone only managed to take home a measly point: disappointment for team boss Toto Wolff, who struggled with the strategy for both cars. Disappointment for Kimi Antonelli after his second retirement in a row. And disappointment above all for local hero George Russell, who had been dreaming of a podium finish rather than tenth place after qualifying in fourth.
“I don’t think the early pit stop was a stupid decision,” Russell nevertheless defended Mercedes’ early switch to slicks at the end of the formation lap, for which he gave up his good starting position: “It was dry for 25 minutes,” said Russell, although he admitted: “What we didn’t know was that there would be a 15-minute period of virtual safety cars.”
“When that ended, we suddenly had a five-second pace advantage over the drivers on intermediates. If we had been able to exploit that advantage over an entire phase of the race, we might even have got back to the front,“ believes the Mercedes driver: ”When things go right, they go right – just not for us today.“
However, Russell is fundamentally satisfied that Mercedes took the risk: ”In our situation, if you play it safe, you’re sure to finish. That would probably have been fourth place. And of course, standing here now, I wish we had taken fourth place.“ But the Briton adds: ”But yes, we wanted to be brave, to take a chance. We made a few risky decisions – and ultimately they didn’t work out in our favor.”
The problem: One wrong call after another ultimately doomed Mercedes, as a second switch to slicks later in the race was also poorly timed – although team boss Toto Wolff expressed understanding: “At that point, he was stuck behind Gasly because the car’s performance was simply not good enough to overtake. And then it was probably an act of defiance: doing something completely different from everyone else in the hope of a better result,“ said the Viennese driver.
The end is well known: it just wasn’t Mercedes’ day. Did the local hero, despite the ups and downs, at least have some fun in a chaotic race, as a small consolation and compensation for the poor result? ”Not really. It’s only fun when you’re in a good position,“ said Russell. ”At the start, on dry tires, I felt very strong.” But then, as we all know, the rain came back
