Mercedes plan talks after Lewis Hamilton and George Russell's Japanese GP clash

24 September 2023 , 11:26

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Mercedes plan talks after Lewis Hamilton and George Russell's Japanese GP clash

Mercedes will discuss its Japanese Grand Prix strategy calls after George Russell was told to swap with Lewis Hamilton at the end of the race.

The Brit, on a one-stop strategy, was leading his team-mate with just a few laps to go. But he was on much older tyres and Carlos Sainz was tailing both of them, ready to pounce. Knowing this, the team took the decision to order Russell to let Hamilton through.

The younger Brit was sacrificed so that the seven-time world champion had the chance to fend off the Ferrari. Russell didn't like it, but it worked – Hamilton held on to fifth place while his team-mate came home seventh behind Sainz.

That contentious call came after several flashpoints between Russell and Hamilton during the race. They were fighting each other hard but never made contact, and that is exactly what the team wanted to see.

Toto Wolff did not travel to Japan so, in his place, communications chief Bradley Lord summarised what had happened. "They race each other hard on a hard-racing track. It's easy to read a lot into those radio messages in the heat of the moment," he said.

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"As always, we talk about it away from the pressure and the high temperatures of the cockpit in the debrief after. “That's where anything gets tidied up that needs tidying up. The one-stop worked for Lewis. With George, he was ahead of [Fernando] Alonso. It offered an opportunity to Sainz. It didn't quite work out ultimately but it was worth a gamble."

"It was a battle out there from the point where Lewis had contact with [Sergio] Perez on the straight. It put us on the back foot, we lost position on Lap 1. It was a case of how far we could fight back from there.

"Lewis drove to the limit of the car on the two-stop, George rolled the dice on a one-stop. We tried to see if we could make it work. Fifth and seventh is better than sixth and seventh, and it helps to minimise the points difference to Ferrari."

That points difference is down now to just 20 points. Red Bull sealed the constructors' championship on Sunday as Max Verstappen won the race, but Ferrari's recent improvements have set up a heavyweight fight with Mercedes for the runners-up spot.

Daniel Moxon