George Russell rued not “trusting my gut” and overruling Mercedes’ ill-timed decision to pit him right before a red flag was thrown in Formula 1‘s Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Starting on the front row, Russell seized the lead into the opening turn and maintained the place over polesitter Lando Norris’ McLaren throughout the opening stages.
However, Russell and Norris came undone when both pitted several laps before Williams’ Franco Colapinto crashed out as conditions worsened, triggering a stoppage.
That allowed Max Verstappen, who went on to win the race, and the two Alpine drivers ahead to switch rubber without a time loss to retain their spots in the top three.
Norris reiterated his hatred towards that rule as he slipped to sixth, but he admitted that Russell had been even more unfortunate as he might have triumphed instead.
Asked whether he had lost a podium in Brazil, Russell, who classified in fourth place, told media including Motorsport Week: “Yeah, very painful, all things considered.”
Russell reveals Mercedes radio exchange
Russell lamented not taking matters into his own hands as he had in Belgium earlier this term when a one-stop helped him to the win until he was excluded post-race.
Expanding more on the communication at that time, Russell added: “It was ‘box’. I said ‘stay out’. It was ‘box’ again, it was ‘stay out’, I said. And they said ‘box’ again.
“As I said, ‘I want to stay out’. And then the last one, you’ve got to go for it…
“Sometimes you have to trust your gut. Last time I trusted my gut, it went down pretty well.
“Today, who knows if we could have won the race? But if we didn’t pit, we would have been leading at the restart and the first 30 laps controlling the pace.
“With Lando behind us, we had very good straight-line speed as well. P2 would have been a minimum.”
Russell in the better position to make pit call
With the rain increasing at that point in time, Russell has argued that he was in a better position inside the cockpit to determine what was going to happen in the race.
“From a team’s perspective, it’s not obvious at all,” the Briton contended.
“From the cockpit, it was very clear it was going to be a red flag or Safety Car, because the conditions were undriveable.
“The rain was not easing. I could see the big black cloud above me.
“And then I had Shov [Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director] jump on as, like, overruling my engineer to say ‘box’.
“We’re working as a team, we’re trying to make the best decisions in the time.
“Clearly the guys who didn’t pit, they finished 1-2-3 and we finished the highest of the drivers who did. So I would take a small slice of satisfaction from that.”
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