George Russell unhappy with F1 Barcelona GP strategy: “I would not have pitted on Lap 13”
Originally published by Motorsportweek
George Russell has conveyed his displeasure at Mercedes’ strategy at the Formula 1 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, which cost him track position to Lewis Hamilton.
Starting on pole position in Barcelona, he converted this into the lead at the first corner, despite Hamilton’s Ferrari getting a better start off the line.
Managing the pace in the early stages, he pitted on Lap 13 to cover off Hamilton, which set off a chain of events that ultimately cost him victory.
Hamilton, on a three-stop strategy, leapfrogged the Mercedes, helped by a Safety Car deployment, after which Russell was powerless to challenge the Ferrari.
Speaking in the post race press conference, Russell tried to take the positives from a difficult afternoon.
“I mean 18 more points than I’ve achieved in the last two races, I would take the positives from that and I’ll take the positives from the weekend as a whole. The race was feeling good to be honest, I felt solid at the start and just slowly edging out a gap to Lewis and he obviously committed quite early to the three-stop and then we covered but stuck on the two-stop.
“And yeah from that point onwards it was quite challenging and just didn’t have the pace and wasn’t feeling too happy with the hard tyre.
George Russell laments Mercedes’ strategy in Barcelona
Russell then confirmed his displeasure at Mercedes’ decision to pit him on Lap 13, which he believed also left him at risk of being undercut by his teammate.
He confirmed he would have talks with his team, despite admitting his pace was not quite enough.
“Well, Lewis had really great pace if I was in the race on my own and there was no other drivers and I was doing a two-stop.
” I would not have pitted on lap 13 now you’re never in the race on your own you’re reacting to your competitors and they put us in a very challenging position to pit this early.
” The truth is my pace wasn’t quite strong enough today but I do think I could have just mirrored his strategy on the three-stop but that would have maybe left me exposed to Kimi on the two-stop, and maybe I wouldn’t have been happy about that in the end so I need to go through with my team.”
Russell also admitted that his duel with Antonelli would not have had a major impact on his race, as the Ferrari’s pace was simply too strong.
“It did cost us a little bit but I think Lewis with the VSC was always destined to come out ahead to be honest,” he said.
“You know he came out with a two-second gap we probably lost a second, but he just had really great pace today.
“*It was really impressive to see and even in the first stint., I was at one point I was expecting to see Kimi make the move on Lewis and I was watching the TV screens, and you know Lewis just seemed to have it covered.”
Losing a race victory to Hamilton in Barcelona will hurt Russell. Although Antonelli retired, he still finished behind the driver ahead of him in the standings. Winning in Austria will now be at the forefront of his mind.