Elliott clear: 'We've always let our drivers race'

In Mercedes' latest video on YouTube, Mike Elliott looked back at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix. Among other things, the technical director explained why George Russell did not have to let his teammate Lewis Hamilton pass him after the safety car. He also spoke about the atmosphere within the team.

Elliott on fight Russell and Hamilton

During the safety car, both Mercedes drivers went in to get fresh tyres. Russell changed from medium tyres to hard tyres. Hamilton did exactly the opposite. This put the German team in a tricky situation. The seven-time World Champion was behind his younger teammate, but on faster tyres. However, there was still more than 30 laps to go, this raised the question of whether Hamilton could maintain the faster pace throughout the whole final stint.

"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. So, although Lewis could put pressure on George initially he wasn’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 explained. So Mercedes gave no team orders to Russell, the Brit argued that they want to keep working that way. "We've always let our drivers race, that's just the way we have operated as a team," he said.

Elliott discusses atmosphere at Mercedes

2022 was a disappointing year for Mercedes. The team suffered badly from porpoising at the start of the season and ultimately managed to record just one victory. Mercedes had hoped to get 2023 off to a better start, but this year too the silver arrows do not seem to be competitive enough. "A disappointment for the whole team. But you have to get yourself through that and you have to turn that into what we are going to do about it? And actually, walking around the factory there is huge amount of energy, there is a huge amount of work going on, we are starting to see some of the development come through already that is going to get us back into this championship fight." Thus, the technical director indicated that the championship is still the goal for Mercedes.