“Lando had new mediums…George only had used hard tyres”: Mercedes engineer explains decision for George Russell not to go for the fastest lap in Monaco
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George Russell
The Monaco Grand Prix was essentially a tactics masterclass where all the F1 fans knew that the team that made the best strategy calls would be victorious above all others. And that is what affected the Ferrari drivers’ run in the street circuit of Monaco, where they could not make the timely decisions that would have helped Charles Leclerc convert his Saturday’s pole position to a race victory in Sunday’s main race.
Another team that could have performed better, but had to settle for much less is Mercedes. The Merc racers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton have got a car that is seemingly less competitive than their rivals for this season of Formula 1 2022. Yet, newbie George Russell has made the best out of his situation and is currently in the fourth position in the WDC Standings.
During the Monaco Grand Prix, weather played a massive role in the decisions that the teams had to take for the drivers. In Mercedes’ case, they could have gone for the fastest lap point with George Russell but they chose to let the opportunity go, as they wanted Russell to defend his P5 position against Lando Norris who would have caught up with him if the race had gone on for another lap.
Mercedes engineer explains the reason why they chose to not to get George Russell go for the fastest lap in the Monaco Grand Prix
George Russell, at one point in time during the Monaco race, looked as if he could contest the frontrunners from Ferrari and Red Bull to make a run for a podium finish. But during the course of the Grand Prix, he had to defend his P5 position against Lando Norris, who was charging behind him with lightning speed.
There came a time when McLaren pitted Lando Norris for a second tyre change, and that left Mercedes a window for putting George Russell once more to put fresher tyres on his car so that the Briton could make an attempt for the fastest lap of the race. But Mercedes decided to leave that as they suspected Lando Norris might catch up with and overtake George Russell if they attempted a second pitstop.
To exain Mercedes’ team decision, their trackside engineer Andrew Shovlin said in the race debrief video, “This comes down to what was fitted at the restart on that red flag – we decided to put George on the medium tyres for the warm-up.
“You saw Lando go for the harder tyre and that also had been used earlier in the race. So, the converse is that the options for the pit-stop, Lando had new mediums available to him, George only had used hard tyres and that was really why we didn’t decide to come in and go for the fastest lap.”
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Riddhi Mondal
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