Mercedes has reviewed its Dutch Grand Prix team orders and is certain getting Kimi Antonelli to overtake George Russell late on ensured it secured a double Formula 1 podium – and would have made the exact same call the other way around.
In the closing stages of the Zandvoort race, Esteban Ocon triggered a virtual safety car on lap 55, with Antonelli in second and Russell in fourth – split by Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton. Both Ferraris pitted that lap, with Antonelli coming in one lap later, to promote Russell into second ahead of the trio.
On fresher soft tyres, Antonelli closed in on Russell who was instructed to let his Mercedes team-mate overtake him. Despite initial reservations Russell obliged and spent the rest of the race defending third place from both Ferraris. Antonelli was unable to chase down winner Lando Norris and had to settle for second, while Russell – with the small aid of another late virtual safety car – kept the Ferraris at bay to take third.
Following a team debrief on Monday, Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord explained the squad reviewed the decision and the reasoning behind it.
“It seemed good, to be honest,” Lord said on Mercedes’ Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show. “One of the funny consequences of that early red flag was actually we were all sort of hot-footing out of Zandvoort and we actually only had the debrief on Monday after the race rather than Sunday in the immediate aftermath, because things were delayed and then everyone was heading out and both the drivers were in the press conference and have all of their stuff to complete as well.
“George quite naturally asked the question, just stress-tested it when he first got the communication. But then understood that bigger picture that with Kimi we'd taken the chance of a free stop behind the VSC.
“If George had made the same stop, he'd have dropped behind one of the Ferraris and given up that podium position regardless. And then really it comes back to what have you talked about beforehand and how clear is how the team's going to operate.
“And we'd been really clear in that Sunday morning strategy meeting that it is too close for us to be able to lose any time at all with our two drivers fighting each other and costing each other time.
“So that had set the basis then for the decision. And I think it's fair to say that had that been the other way around, we'd have done exactly the same thing in order to give ourselves the best chance of the P2 finish and to give the car in third, again, the clear air and the best chance of holding position as well.”
There was also a consideration for Antonelli to give Russell the tow and Overtake Mode – similar to the previous generation DRS – but Mercedes opted against it due to the lack of advantage it would provide the British driver plus the high risk of it backfiring.
“We had the conversation and there was a bit of a debate,” Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes trackside engineering director, explained. “In the end, we decided that it's not a massive gain in terms of lap time there.
“It's two tenths. And it's fair to say that those two tenths is on the straight. So that's probably the place that you're going to be vulnerable.
“There was also some concern of just the cars getting tangled up if we're trying to do something clever that we've not rehearsed. But given that it isn't an enormous chunk of lap time and speed at that circuit, we felt actually it would be better to give George the clear air [and] Kimi just gets out the way.
“That's probably George's best chance of getting a good exit and a good braking, because ultimately you can't follow with these cars at two tenths. So the way that a Ferrari would have got past him would have been if it made a lot of ground coming out of the final corner or went very, very deep on the brakes.”
Shovlin gave full praise to Russell for his defence in the final laps to secure a double podium for Mercedes and move up to second in the drivers' championship – level on points with Hamilton but ahead on wins countback.
“It's honestly a really impressive effort by George. You wouldn't have given him maybe even 50-50 odds of holding both of them back. There's a good chance that one of them was going to get through,” Shovlin said.
“Maybe we're a bit lucky with that VSC that just took the heat out of it for a lap or two and he was able to manage his energy levels.”
