Mercedes has disclosed that employing team directives against George Russell to safeguard the team’s Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix victory would have been contemplated if there was one more lap.
Russell executed an unforeseen strategy of making only one pit stop to finish ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton at Spa-Francorchamps, but his disqualification resulted from a car that was underweight.
Starting from third place, Hamilton overtook Sergio Perez at the beginning and then Charles Leclerc, who had secured pole position, on the third lap, allowing him to control the race.
However, Hamilton found himself trailing his compatriot when Russell, who was stuck in fifth place, decided, in agreement with the team, to take a risk and make one less pit stop than his rivals.
Despite closing the gap to his teammate in the final laps, Hamilton was unable to overtake Russell due to turbulent conditions that made passing more difficult than expected.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has clarified that the team wanted to avoid instructing Russell to move aside, but the threat posed by Oscar Piastri could have necessitated intervention.
When asked if there was a temptation to issue a team order for Russell to protect Hamilton from the charging Piastri, Wolff responded, “Not with team orders, but probably if we had one more lap, that could have been a consideration because it would have secured first place, and George would have finished in third. But I’m glad we didn’t have to make that decision.”
Hamilton expressed dissatisfaction with the strategic decisions made by Mercedes, as he believed his tires were in good enough condition to mimic Russell’s performance.
However, with track position being crucial, Wolff revealed that the team wanted to cover the pit stops of Leclerc and Piastri to ensure that Hamilton did not end up behind other cars.
“As a driver, you don’t have the complete picture because he said his tires were good. But at that point, no one was considering a one-stop strategy,” Wolff explained.
“We had to keep an eye on the cars behind, I believe it was Piastri and Leclerc. And you can see that everyone else logically opted for a two-stop strategy.
“It simply wasn’t something we anticipated. So, what we did with Lewis was absolutely the right thing to do. But in the end, George defied the odds.
“It couldn’t have been predicted because if it could have been, any of the other top teams would have done it.”
In the end, Russell’s disqualification, attributed to the increased tire wear from the one-stop strategy, elevated Hamilton to the victory that he believed his performance had warranted.
