Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has absolved George Russell of responsibility for the botched start which dropped him from sixth on the grid to 20th place at the first corner of the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix.
The car appeared to be responding to inputs correctly on its way to the grid as Russell followed the tyre-warming instructions relayed to him by engineer Marcus Dudley, including a final set of burn-outs as he approached his slot. But in the final moments of the start procedure, Russell appeared to lose control of the engine revs and the car stuttered away from the line as he released the clutch.
Only Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez – who started from the pitlane – were behind Russell at the first corner. When Russell asked “what went wrong there?” he was told the car had gone into anti-stall.
When he requested further clarification of whether he had got the starting procedure wrong, Russell was told, “Clutch 2% shallow, looks like the throttle pedal – you backed off at high rpm.”
But Wolff later explained that the issue with the engine – which was new for this weekend – wasn’t Russell’s responsibility.
“It looks like he gave about 10% throttle and the whole thing revved to the maximum, he went off the throttle and it bogged down,” said Wolff.
“I’m really not happy about too many mistakes that happened. So that was the reason and then he drove very well.
“He went through the traffic easy and then recovered, I think, the maximum points that he could have recovered.”
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
“I was on the throttle holding the revs, and then all of a sudden, about four seconds before the lights went out, the engine just started revving all over the place,” said Russell.
“And I was reacting with my throttle, and it wasn’t doing anything. So, the engine wasn’t reacting to the throttle.”
On a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult, Russell passed Valtteri Bottas around the outside at Turn 5 on the opening lap, then picked off Alex Albon, Carlos Sainz, Oliver Bearman, Fernando Alonso, Franco Colapinto, Gabriel Bortoleto, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly and Nico Hulkenberg to reach the points by lap 17.
He then passed the Racing Bulls of Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson to hit P7 on lap 21, gaining an extra spot owing to Isack Hadjar’s Red Bull pitting from what had been sixth. Russell then dropped back behind Hadjar as his own pitstop sequence played out, finishing seventh, 2.015s behind the Red Bull.
“You can’t fail the drivers today. Kimi [Antonelli]’s defence on the hard [tyre] against Lewis [Hamilton] on the soft was brilliant, brilliant driving and the same with George,” said Wolff.
“I think he cleared 10 cars at the beginning through the traffic when we knew it was going to be very difficult. So the drivers today were really doing a good job.”
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