Mercedes reveal strategy split that cost George Russell the Australian GP lead

Mercedes have explained the strategy decisions that led them to pit George Russell just before a red flag shuffled him backward in the pack.

George Russell stormed into the lead at the start of the Australian Grand Prix, having had a lightning getaway from the grid to get past pole-sitter Max Verstappen.

Russell led the early stages of the race but, when the Safety Car was deployed to cover the crash of Williams’ Alex Albon on Lap 7, Mercedes opted to pit Russell from the lead to take on the hard tyre – only for the move to immediately backfire as the race was red-flagged moments later.

Russell, having been shuffled down to seventh by the stop, made a great restart to quickly launch himself into fifth place before overtaking Alpine’s Pierre Gasly for fourth.

Just as he was latching on to Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso for third and looking set to rejoin the lead battle, Russell’s power unit expired as he pulled over on the pit straight.

With Mercedes having been seemingly wrong-footed by the red flag that looked to have compromised Russell’s race, James Allison, Mercedes’ chief technical officer, has explained why the decision was taken to bring the race leader in.

Mercedes didn’t anticipate red flag stoppage after Alex Albon crash

“That early in the race, it’s right on the cusp of whether a Safety Car stop is going to help you out or leave you a little bit worse off,” Allison said on Mercedes’ debrief from the Australian Grand Prix.

“And so, you can see when that happened, we chose to split our cars. We brought George in but left Lewis [Hamilton] out because at that point it’s very finely balanced whether you are going to get a benefit from the stop or not.

“And by bringing one in and not the other then you are splitting your risk; it’s like an each-way bet.

“As it happens, it looked post that decision that we probably did the right thing with George to bring him in, just from a pure getting the best out of a cheap pit stop under the Safety Car. But all that was rendered completely null and void when the red flag was then pulled out just a few seconds later.”

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Allison revealed that, given the nature of Albon’s incident, Mercedes had not anticipated the need for a red flag.

“We were very surprised by that red flag because, to us, that looked like the sort of incident that could have been cleared up under yellow.

“Of course, the moment that it goes red then, although you got a cheap stop under a Safety Car, it’s nothing like as good as the free stop you get under a red flag.

“I think the decision stands on the merits that we were considering when we made it, but obviously, once the red flag came out, then it clearly meant that George lost out a little bit.”

Where might George Russell have finished without the engine problem?

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said after the race that, had the race been straightforward without the engine failure, Russell could have been a contender for outright victory: “He was leading the race fair and square with a great start and we went on to a bold strategy with pitting early for the hard, and I think it could have probably won the race for him.”

With Russell quickly bringing himself back into contention with the leading trio after the first restart, only to be undone by his engine problem, Allison was asked to predict where the British driver might have been able to finish – Allison choosing to be a little less bold in his prediction than Wolff.

“He was obviously a little ill-served by that red flag, lost a few slots on the grid instead of benefitting from the Safety Car stop that we hoped we would give to him,” he said.

“But he would have had a strong race. He showed good pace all the way through the weekend, good in qualifying, strong start, good race pace and was set fair for a good result even if he had been ill-served by the fortune of the red flag.”