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Luck did not smile on George Russell at the Sakhir Grand Prix. If Mercedes does not usually fail regularly, pit stops are one of the strengths of the German team, and today they were not fine either. Everything came together to deprive the British of a victory that had been cooked from the start, overtaking his teammate. And coincidences of life, the end-of-career debacle was triggered by an accident involving his replacement in Williams, Jack Aitken.
Everything was going well until Aitken’s accident
Russell drove with a cool mind throughout the race. Very active on the radio, sharing impressions with his engineer and always attentive to what Bottas did to try to get the maximum tenths per lap. Everything was going well. The stops had been correct. The Brit had a comfortable eight-second mattress. Everything was going smoothly. Victory was sung.
But everything was cut short with the accident of Jack Aitken in the middle of the finish line. The Briton lost control of the Williams at the start of the home straight, in an incident very similar to that of Alexander Albon during Friday’s Bahrain GP but with a different result: Aitken was able to stay on track, although its front wing had come off on the race line.
Safety Car on track. Mercedes had a free stop. Why not stop? It would only be to fit new tires to tie the 1-º2 of the German brand. But that stop, that in no case was necessary, conditioned the result of Mercedes in Sakhir. And how.
The mechanics got the wrong tires. An internal radio problem created confusion in the garage. Russell and Bottas had mounted the wrong tires. The Brit would have to stop again and would come out just behind his partner. From there, the English comeback, much more aggressive than the Finnish. He was second and had enough laps to catch up with Perez, but a puncture caused the fourth pit stop. A very unfair fate for an error-free and very mature performance by the Briton. The victory did not come but the Sakhir GP could have been a before and after in Mercedes. Russell has yelled loud and clear “here I am”.
Sanction to Mercedes
Hours after the race, the commissioners have sanctioned Mercedes with 20,000 euros for mounting Bottas’ tires on Russell’s car during the Discord pit stop. Economic punishment that is added to the self-inflicted by the team itself.
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