Why Mercedes did not use team orders in Russell-Hamilton battle
Following a mid-race Safety Car, Hamilton, who had pitted for medium tyres, found himself on the back of teammate Russell, who was running on slower hards.
Despite appearing to be the faster Mercedes at the time, Hamilton was unable to pass Russell, who eventually eased clear and finished fourth ahead of the seven-time world champion.
With both Mercedes losing ground to Fernando Alonso’s third-placed Aston Martin and with Hamilton not able to maximise his fresher tyres in Russell’s dirty air there were suggestions Mercedes should have swapped their drivers, but no instruction came.
There was some uncertainty over team radio at Mercedes during this period but Russell later clarified the “confusion”.
Speaking in a debrief video after Saudi Arabia, Mercedes technical director Mike Elliott revealed why the team felt there was no need to use team orders.
"First of all you’ve got to bear in mind that the Safety Car was pretty early so it was going to be a very long final stint,” Elliott said.
“Although Lewis came out on the faster tyre theoretically the Medium, by the end of the stint the Hard tyre was going to be a much quicker tyre.
“So, although Lewis could put pressure on George initially he wasn’t going to be able to do that at the end of the stint and so there probably wasn’t a clear which tyre is faster or slower if you look at the full stint length.”
Elliott underlined that Mercedes' position on allowing their drivers to race each other freely remains unchanged.
“We've always let our drivers race, that's just the way we have operated as a team and we didn’t think we were going to be in a position where favouring one driver over the other would get us in a better position in the race,” he added. “So, we just let them race."
After the opening two races, Hamilton sits fifth in the F1 2023 championship standings, one position and two points ahead of Russell.
