Photo Credit: Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team
It was an eventful race for George Russell at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. Qualifying in an excellent P3, the grid position set the stage perfectly for a possible podium finish. However as was the theme of the weekend, rain played its hand in forcing decisions from the pit wall which in many ways was a pure gamble if it was to pay off.
Playing roulette with these rain gods caused Russell a lot of trouble at the beginning of the race and the Englishman admits his race was over before it really got started. Staying out on dry tyres when others pitted for inters proved to be the wrong strategy as the rain intensified and lasted longer than predicted.
“I mean the race was over before it really got started. The information we had on the weather was totally wrong and we thought the rain was going to last for a couple of minutes and it clearly lasted for longer so that was a real shame.”
Russell eventually pitted on lap 6 and he found himself well outside the points in P14. However by lap 11 Russell was hunting down water, weaving around trying to keep his tyres cool as they again were predicting the weather and anticipated more rain in a couple of laps. This rain never materialised and Russell pitted for hard tyres on lap 16 under the safety car for the stricken Williams of Logan Sargeant. Russell spoke about how his team now need to review their decisions to do better in the future.
“As a team we need to review, we get the information given to us and it was misjudged, the weather. It was nothing to do with racing or engineering, it was just a misinterpretation of the weather and that ruined our afternoon. We really need to look into what happened, why the other decided to pit, what information they had that maybe we didn’t and make sure we don’t make the same mistake again. They told me it was going to be two minutes and I knew I could manage in those conditions for two minutes but it just got heavier and heavier and lasted for ten minutes.”
Russell also performed a big save on track when being stalked by 7-time World Champion and teammate Lewis Hamilton and says he was struggling with his car at the time due to vibrations from contact with Yuki Tsunoda. Furthermore he spoke about his disappointment with having contact with Norris, which caused a puncture, ultimately limping back to the pits to retire the car.
“A podium was missed. Then we made a good recovery and then the contact with Lando was an unfortunate racing incident causing a puncture. Disappointing but good that we had a fast race car. I had contact with Tsunoda earlier in the race about five laps before this incident and had massive vibrations at high speed and was struggling to see, then I looked a bit in my mirror and the next thing I realised I was off the track. I’m glad I kept it out of the wall, the good thing about this track is there is no room for error. It was a shame because I could have stayed ahead of Lewis and Lando and Gasly. Seeing where Gasley ended up it could have been a very different story.”
