Mercedes concedes to Russell's point, whilst making a tough admission

21:21, 29 Oct

byNorberto Mujica

While Mercedes' team representative Bradley Lord has admitted to the team being slow to react to George Russell's team orders request in Mexico, he also confessed the W16's pace was also lacking.

"It did take a while to figure that out because we, initially, as a team, would let our drivers race and that’s what our racing intent calls for."

- Bradley Lord

During the Mexico City Grand Prix, after Russell had been overtaken by Hass's Oliver Bearman and Mercedes teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, following a Turn 5 tussle with Max Verstappen the order remained the same until the first round of pit stops, with the British rookie ahead.

When the three drivers found each other on track again, having made the first of their two scheduled stops for fresh tyres, Russell was vocal on the radio asking for the team to step in and switch the order around with Antonelli in a bid to take Bearman and try and make ground on the cars ahead.

Nevertheless, Mercedes held back from making the call, which Russell believed led to the team missing its chance for a better result.

During the team's video briefing of the race in Mexico, Lord outlined the difficult parameters the Mercedes pit wall had to face prior to making the decision.

russell-and-antonelli-during-mexican-gp - Credit: Race Pictures

George Russell and Kimi Antonelli during the Mexican Grand Prix

“It was a really tricky situation,” said the team’s representative. “We had Kimi driving in a way to manage his tyres, managing to a one-stop and doing exactly what was being asked of him.

“George was obviously under pressure from Piastri, closing up and very much feeling that squeeze between Kimi in front who was managing everything quite carefully, waiting for either Bearman’s tyres to drop off in front to be able to take advantage of that, or for an undercut if we were to convert to a two-stop because it was right on the limit.

"George was obviously coming up from behind, closing that gap and then in the dirty air, using more of his tyres because of that and also feeling that he had pace to get past.

“So it did take a while to figure that out because we, initially, as a team, would let our drivers race and that’s what our racing intent calls for.

russell-bearman-mercedes-haas-f1-mexicogp

Photo: RacePictures.

"We did eventually decide to swap and I think in hindsight regardless of whether we decided to hold position or swap it was the delay that was the thing that didn’t work out for us."

Though conceding to Russell's complaint, Lord also stressed that Mercedes wasn't just slow to react, but the car itself was also not quick enough to make the move on Bearman.

“By the time George was past his tyres were past their best and he couldn’t get past Bearman. Equally, later in the race on fresh tyres once he’d made the second stop, he had another chance to attack and was unable to make the move stick then either. So I think on the day we weren’t quite quick enough to make that happen,” Lord concluded.

Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull's fight for P2 in the Constructors'

With Charles Leclerc P2 and Lewis Hamilton's P8 in Mexico, Ferrari have moved ahead of Mercedes in the Constructors' Standings by one point, with Verstappen's P3 reeling Red Bull's rivals in to a mere 10-point gap.

Russell believed the podium in Mexico would've been possible had the Stewards taken action against the corner-cutting drivers at the start, and had Mercedes focused on the fight against its direct championship rivals.

On Leclerc's side, the Monegasque stressed that though his latest two podium streak gives him hope that Ferrari can pip its rivals, it will require a perfect execution in each of the remaining championship rounds, a tough task, the Scuderia's driver assessed.

Despite their Mexico GP woes, Red Bull and Verstappen are expected to return to full form from Brazil onwards, since the unusually high altitude the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit is located at will not factor in the remaining races, which triggered various set up difficulties for the Milton Keynes-based outfit, made obvious particularly during qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix.