Mercedes pit stop error that “compromised” George Russell at F1 Barcelona GP revealed

The Mercedes Formula 1 team has revealed that a pit stop error “compromised” George Russell’s performance at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

Russell was left to settle with second place, nearly 20 seconds behind former Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who pulled off a three-stop strategy to secure his first victory with Ferrari in Barcelona.

The 28-year-old Briton controlled the early stages but lacked the pace at key stages of the race and also lost time squabbling with team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli before the Italian teenager retired.

It has now emerged that Mercedes made a mistake when adjusting the front wing on Russell’s car during his second and final pit stop, which hampered him in the final stint.

“In our final pit stop, we actually incorrectly adjusted the front wing owing to a problem with the adjuster gun, and that meant that he was working with a very, very oversteer-y balance that certainly compromised his pace in the final stages,” deputy team principal Bradley Lord said in a Mercedes debrief video.

Russell had referenced that he struggled for pace on the hard tyre in his final stint of the race in the post-race press conference.

"I felt solid at the start and just slowly eking out the gap to Lewis, and he obviously committed quite early to the three-stop and then we covered, but stuck on the two-stop,” he explained.

”From that point onwards it was quite challenging and just didn’t have the pace and wasn’t feeling too happy with the hard tyre.”

Mercedes believes it could have won in Barcelona had it executed its race better, and had more fortune with the timing of the mid-race virtual safety car that gifted Hamilton a cheap pit stop.

“In theory that is a race we could have won,” Lord added. “We had really strong pace with George on the medium tyre in the opening stint. Kimi was very strong on the hard tyres in stints two and three, where George was a bit less comfortable with the car.

“But we could only have won it we’d have got everything right. We lost race time with the two drivers fighting each other in that second stint and then also in the third stint. Then obviously with Kimi, ultimately, we had a reliability failure that cost him any chance finishing at all.

“It’s true to say that Ferrari were a little bit fortunate with the VSC that put Lewis out on track ahead of our car at that final pit stop. Had that not happened, then he’d have had to fight his way through the field.

“It doesn’t mean the result would have necessarily changed, but we could have put ourselves in a stronger position to claim that win.”