Mercedes admit they took too long to take team orders decision in Mexico

Mercedes admitted they should have decided much earlier whether they were going to swap the positions of their cars in the Mexican Grand Prix.

George Russell spent seven laps lobbying the team to tell Andrea Kimi Antonelli to let him through after their first pit stops. Mercedes eventually relented, but Russell said they took so long his tyres were too hot for him to make progress once he got ahead.

“It was a really tricky situation,” said the team’s representative Bradley Lord in a video released after the race. “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 up and very much feeling that squeeze between Kimi in front who was managing everything quite carefully, waiting for either Bearman’s tyres to drop off in front to be able to take advantage of that, or for an undercut if we were to convert to a two-stop because it was right on the limit. George was obviously coming up from behind, 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.

“So it did take a while to figure that out because we, initially, as a team, would let our drivers race and that’s what our racing intent calls for. 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 was the thing that didn’t work out for us.

“By the time George was past his tyres were past their best and he couldn’t get past Bearman. Equally, later in the race on fresh tyres once he’d made the second stop, he had another chance to attack and was unable to make the move stick then either. So I think on the day we weren’t quite quick enough to make that happen.”

Antonelli finished the race sixth, one place ahead of Russell, but told Mercedes after the race they had missed an opportunity to take fourth.

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“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,” said Lord. “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.”

Radio messages: first position swap

Mercedes eventually agreed to Russell’s requests to let him through, though Antonelli was not happy about the instruction:

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After their second pit stops, as soon as Russell fell behind Oscar Piastri, Antonelli asked for his position back. Mercedes duly ordered another swap, though after the race Antonelli made it clear he felt their tactics had compromised their result:

Radio messages: second position swap

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