Mercedes admits: George Russell at the Barcelona GP suffered a serious disadvantage

The final stages of the thrilling Barcelona Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton was on course for his first GP victory in red in his Ferrari, whilst the Mercedes cars of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell were unable to keep up the pace; then championship leader Antonelli also retired, leaving Hamilton to win ahead of Russell and Norris.

Now Mercedes has admitted in a video of its own: there were reasons why Russell wasn’t faster towards the end of the championship race. Bradley Lord, the team’s deputy team principal, says: “During our final pit stop, we set the front wing incorrectly because there was a problem with the adjustment gun. This meant that George was driving with a very oversteering balance, which certainly affected his pace in the final stages.”

The burning question after the race: would Mercedes have had a better chance of winning if they had employed a three-stop strategy (as Ferrari did with Lewis Hamilton)?

Lord continues: “As is often the case on tracks with high tyre wear and high temperatures, the decision between two and three pit stops before the race is very close. We felt two stops were the better choice, and even when Lewis came in very early in the first stint, we reacted immediately with George to hold the position on the track – because that’s crucial in Barcelona.”

“At the second stop, Hamilton was just within undercut range, which meant we couldn’t bring George in and maintain his position on the track ahead of the Ferrari without potentially coming out behind him. So we decided to go with a two-stop strategy for both cars. Hamilton then benefited from a virtual safety car period, which halved the time lost on his final pit stop.”

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“You could say that Ferrari had a bit of luck with the VSC, which brought Lewis out onto the track ahead of our cars during the final tyre change. Had that not happened, he would have had to fight his way through the field. That doesn’t mean the result would necessarily have been different, but we could probably have put ourselves in a better position to secure this victory.”