Why Mercedes did not use team orders in George Russell's battle with Lewis Hamilton at F1 Saudi Arabian GP
Following a mid-race Safety Car, Hamilton, who had pitted for medium tyres, found himsꦅelf on the back of teammate Russell, who was running on slower hards.
Despite appearing to be the faster Mercedes at the time, Hamilton was unable to pass Russell🐎, wh꧋o eventually eased clear and finished fourth ahead of the seven-time world champion.
With both Mercedes losing ground to 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Fernando Alonso’s third-placed Aston Martin and with Hamilton not able tꦏo maximise his fresher tyres in Russell’s dirty air there were suggestions Mercedes should have swapped their drivers, but no instru♈ction came.
There was some uncertainty over team radio at Mercedes during this period but Russell later 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:clarified the “confusion”.
Speaking in a debrief video after Saudi Arabia, Mercedes technical director Mike Elliott revealed why the team felt there was no need to use team orders.&🐼nbsp;
"First of all you’ve got to bear in mind that the Safety Car was pretty🃏 early so it was going to be a very long final stint,” Elliott said.
“Although Lewis came out on the faster tyre theoretically the Medium, by the end of the stint the Hard tyre was going to be a much quicker tyre.&ꦓnb🍸sp;
“So, although Lewis could put pressure on George initially he wasꦓn’t going to be able to do that at the end of the stint and so there probably wasn’t a clear which tyre is faster or slower if you look at the full stint length.”
Elliott underlined that Mercedes' position on allowing their drivers to race e🔥ach other freely remains unchanged.
“We've always let our drive🥃rs race, that's just the way we have operated as a team and we didn’t think we were going to be in a position where favouring one driver over th🎐e other would get us in a better position in the race,” he added. “So, we just let them race."
After the opening two races, Hamilton sits fifth in the 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:F1 2023 championship standings, o🌼ne position and two points ahead of Russell.
Lewis regularly a💮ttends Grands Prix for ltxcn.top around the world. Often reportinꦆg on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
