Mercedes go into detail on pit lane blunder behind Russell's drive-through

Russell was handed a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane during the race, a sanction that was also imposed on several other drivers throughout the race. Under the regulations, the penalty either had to be added to his race time if he did not make another pit stop, or served during a stop by keeping the car stationary for five seconds before any work could begin.

Although Russell did pit, the procedure was not carried out correctly, resulting in a further drive-through penalty. Following the restart after the red flag, the Briton dropped out of the points, while his teammate went on to secure another crucial victory in the championship battle.

Speaking during Mercedes' customary post-race debrief, Shovlin explained that the team initially intended to pit Kimi Antonelli under the Safety Car while calculating whether George Russell, carrying both a penalty and the time loss from waiting behind Antonelli's stop, would remain ahead of Hadjar. Once Mercedes concluded he would not, Russell was instructed to stay out.

However, after missing the first opportunity to stop him, the team opted to bring Russell in on the following lap. At that stage, the FIA announced that the Safety Car would be using the pit lane, while Antonelli was already being serviced as planned. Shovlin admitted Mercedes' key mistake was failing to inform Russell to remain in the fast lane.

With both sets of tyres positioned in the garage, Russell assumed the tyres were intended for him and turned into the pit box, catching the mechanics off guard. As a result, they were not prepared to correctly serve his penalty,

Wolff has shed further light on the chain of events that compromised Russell's Monaco Grand Prix, admitting Mercedes bore responsibility for one of the key mistakes that contributed to the Briton's difficult afternoon.

While the Mercedes team boss was unable to provide a clear explanation for several of the penalties handed out during the race, he acknowledged that the team's handling of Russell's stop was not up to standard. According to Wolff, Mercedes now needs to review the communication between the pit wall and the driver to fully understand how the situation unfolded and why Russell was not prevented from missing the penalty procedure.

“Not quite sure what the reason was for the penalty and for the many other penalties, whether it's cutting, and then obviously the pit lane time is too quick, because there will have been a dozen pit lane speeding incidents, that's number one. So I can't really give you an answer,” he told GPBlog among others.

“As for not serving the stop, clearly our mistake. We need to look at our communication, whether we actually expected him to come in. Because I think what I remember is about staying out and not coming in. But nevertheless, you've got to be on it then to hold him, and we didn't.”