Mercedes lifts lid on delayed Mexico GP team orders call with George Russell

Mercedes communications chief Bradley Lord has reflected on the ‘tricky situation’ with team orders during the Mexico Grand Prix.

George Russell was critical of the Brackley outfit’s handling of swapping positions with him and his team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli during the race at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. The Briton made the request for the team to swap positions on lap 35 as he closed in on Antonelli. While Mercedes did not agree, Russell was informed that he was “free to race”. 

The following lap, Russell pushed for the swap again, stating, “We got a Ferrari and a Haas ahead, we can fight for the podium here!” Frustrations hit a high during the following laps. Russell was asked to manage the “rear surface temperatures”, to which he quipped, “Marcus, I’ve got a ****ing car in my ****. A car much quicker than ours. I’m trying to hold position. I’ve got much more pace than Kimi here and we can fight for a podium. I’m happy to give the position back if we don’t achieve it.”

Team orders were enforced on lap 41, but Russell argued that the call was too delayed and he was not able to make the overtake, so the positions were reversed before the end of the race.

“It was a really tricky situation,” Lord explained in a Mercedes debrief video. “We had Kimi driving in a way to manage his tyres, managing to a one-stop and doing exactly what was being asked of him.

“George was obviously under pressure from Piastri… closing that gap and then in the dirty air, using more of his tyres because of that and also feeling that he had pace to get past.

“We did eventually decide to swap and I think in hindsight regardless of whether we decided to hold position or swap, it was the delay that didn’t work out for us.”

He added: “It was very difficult to overtake in Mexico with the low downforce, very difficult with the dirty air phenomenon that seems more penalising now than at any part of these rules since 2022. So it was a tricky situation and we probably didn’t get everything right in how we managed it.”

“The lesson is really that we should have been more decisive either in asking to hold position or swapping the positions rather than waiting the time we did.”

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– The Motorsport.com Team

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