13 October 2023 , 05:00
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Mercedes were surprised by the progress George Russell made through the pack after his clash with Lewis Hamilton at the Qatar Grand Prix.
The Brits started second and third on the grid and well-placed to fight Max Verstappen in the early stages of the race. But dreams of a double podium went up in smoke when the Mercedes drivers collided on the first lap.
Hamilton was sent into the gravel and out of the race. Russell had to pit for a new front wing which meant he had to progress through the pack and try to recover as many places as he could.
He managed to climb back up to fourth place which, as the team's trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has admitted, was far better than Mercedes had initially anticipated.
"The early predictions were coming in at the back of the points, but not scoring many," he said in a video released by the team. "As the race went on, those predictions got better and better. Ultimately, they ended indicating that he would finish in fourth place.
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"Well, what changed that? He was able to overtake, he was able to get through some key cars early on and also once he got into free air, we could see that the race pace was actually really good.
"That was the thing that allowed him to make up so many places. On top of that, the strategy team did a great job of reoptimizing the race, trying to make the most of a bad situation and fourth was a great reward for their efforts."
Another factor behind his progress was the fact that, "happily", as Shovlin described it, Russell had not picked up any notable damage on his car despite the broken front wing which was replaceable. "The car itself was pretty much unscathed and you could see that in his race pace. It was a very strong recovery drive, able to go from the very back to fourth place at the chequered flag," he added.
It meant a lot to the team, but not much to Russell's personal ambitions for the season. "For me this year, the drivers' championship has been a complete disaster," he said after the race. "I've got one goal [for the rest of 2023] and that is to finish P2 in the teams' championship – and [the Qatar race] was a big opportunity for us [to consolidate the position].
"But I still have full faith that we are going to achieve it. I have positivity because the car was quick [in Qatar], and we had a really strong race. We've got a few little things coming [to the car] for the last races of the season, and I believe we will achieve that result."