Mercedes’ choice
Formula 1 is approaching the Italian GP weekend in Monza and around the Mercedes team curiosity is growing to understand if the team order with which the Brackley team allowed Andrea Kimi Antonelli to regain second position in the Zandvoort GP at the expense of George Russell represents a turning point in the management of the two drivers, who theoretically are still both in the running for the Drivers’ Championship.
During the latest episode of the video-podcast Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show it was directly Bradley Lord and Andrew Shovlin who told the ‘behind the scenes’ of what happened in Zandvoort, assuring that if the roles were reversed there would have been no hesitation in favoring George Russell, regardless of the championship standings.
“George, of course, questioned the order when he received it, but understood the bigger picture – explained Bradley Lord – Kimi had taken advantage of the opportunity of a free pit stop during the Virtual Safety Car. If George had done the same, he would have found himself behind a Ferrari and lost the podium position. Also, in the Sunday morning strategy meeting, we were very clear that the group was too close for our drivers to afford to waste time fighting each other. That discussion provided the basis for the decision. If the circumstances had been reversed, we would have acted exactly the same way“.
Read more Monza: great heat all weekend long
Who knows if Monza, with the grid penalty that Antonelli will have to serve due to the new power unit that will be installed on his car, will immediately provide the opportunity to test the truthfulness of Lord’s words: if Antonelli were ahead of Russell but on a different strategy and risked slowing the Englishman down, would the pit wall signal to give way?
The backstory: Antonelli could have helped Russell
Meanwhile, another interesting backstory about Zandvoort was revealed by Andrew Shovlin, who explained how they considered asking Antonelli to slow down to allow Russell to use the Overtake Mode and thus more easily defend the podium position from the Ferrari attack. In the end, however, this solution was discarded: “We discussed it. The gain was about two tenths of a second, mainly on the straight, which was also the most vulnerable point for George – said Shovlin – but there was the fear that trying something we had never tried before could cause contact between the cars. Since the lap gain was not huge, we decided it was better for Kimi to move ahead and give George free space to have the best possible corner exit and braking. George’s defense was really impressive. We probably wouldn’t have given him even a 50% chance of keeping both Ferraris behind; the VSC helped calm the situation for a couple of laps and allowed him to manage his energy, but he executed the defense superbly“, Shovlin concluded.
