According to George Russell, Mercedes’ weather forecast was so wrong that his race was actually over before it even started. After a dramatic start, Russell eventually had to retire at the end of the race after a collision with Lando Norris.
“The race was over before it even started,” Russell said after the race. “The information we obtained regarding the weather was completely wrong. It was a great pity, we missed a podium.”
“As a team we have to look at this because we got the information and the weather was misjudged. It has nothing to do with racing or engineering, it was clearly a misinterpretation of the weather that ruined our afternoon. We really need to look at what happened, why the others decided to pit, what information they might have that we didn’t. We have to make sure we don’t make this mistake again.”
According to George Russell, Mercedes had mainly misjudged the intensity and duration of the rain during the start and early stages of the race.
“They told me it would be two minutes and I would have to manage it for two minutes,” said Russell. “However, it started to rain more and more heavily and it lasted for ten minutes. It is therefore a joint effort, it is a real shame, certainly that it happened this way. But we have to live with it and learn from it.”
After that bad strategic decision, Russell fell all the way from third to last. Russell then managed to fight his way back partly to the front, but a collision with Lando Norris meant the end of his race.