By any standards the Monaco GP was disastrous for the Mercedes Formula 1 team, which failed to score any points at the most prestigious race of the year.
The potential was clearly there, with setup changes after a difficult practice allowing George Russell to be as high as fifth in Q1.
However a PU failure early in Q2 stranded the Briton in 14th on the final grid – just ahead of Kimi Antonelli, who crashed at the end of Q1, having already made it through.
In the race the team opted to stay out and run long. The plan was spoiled by Racing Bulls and Williams both successfully implementing a strategy of backing everyone up to clear a pit stop window for the sister car, and Russell lost tons of time.
His frustration boiled over when he cut the chicane to pass a slow Alex Albon, something that earned him a drive through penalty. He took it on lap 53, prior to his mandatory tyre change stops on laps 62 and 68.
All of that at least gave him a clear track in the latter part of the race, something that allowed him to have some fun and drive flat out for a while. He was classified 11th at the flag, having set the race’s second fastest lap right at the end.
“We had planned with Kimi and I to basically do the same strategy as what VCARB and Williams implemented with the two drivers,” he told me when I asked about his race.
“But ultimately qualifying 14th and 15th, there is nothing you can do. You pit on lap one we’d have finished nowhere. You go long, we finished nowhere.
Ironically, I finished in a higher position by doing my manoeuvre with Alex than I would have done if I hadn’t. So that, in itself, proves the system’s pretty flawed.”
Russell admitted that he didn’t expect a drive through rather than a five or 10 second penalty, with the stewards clearly taking a dim view of his move.
“I was a little bit surprised, but I’ve got be honest, I didn’t really care,” he said. “Because I was out of the points I didn’t give a chance yesterday to enjoy Monaco, and I just said, ‘Screw it. I want to enjoy Monaco. I want to enjoy driving this track full gas.’
“It’s one of the best circuits in the world, and that’s what I did – the last 25 laps was the most fun I’ve had all weekend.
“Pretty exhilarating. I was really pushing my limits, testing myself. And as I said, ironically, if I didn’t do this, I would have finished maybe 15th or 16th.”
“It didn’t work because it was too easy for drivers and teams to work together to create the pit stop gap, invert the cars the next driver creates a pit stop gap and gives their teammate the free stop.
“So as I said, we had planned that ourselves, with Kimi and I, because that was our only hope of getting some points. And if everyone was driving flat out, as you do at any other race, and we ended up implementing our strategy, we both would have finished in the points. But VCARB did it, Williams did it. Then what can you do?
“Lawson took a 40-second gap to help Hadjar, and that was comfortable of him. And then Sainz did another 40 seconds. Driving four seconds off the pace here is dead easy. And our strategist said, anything less than three seconds of pace advantage is a zero percent chance of an overtake.
“You need four and a half seconds for a 50% chance of an overtake. So you effectively could put an F2 car out there, and they’ve got a chance of holding up an F1 car. I don’t know what the solution is. We were lucky in ’22 and ’23 that the wet races offered some excitement. Do they wet the track? I don’t know.”
He added: “We definitely need to have a real think what the solution is here at Monaco, I appreciate trying something this year, the two-stop. It clearly did not work at all. For all of the drivers qualifying is the most exhilarating moment of the weekend.
“Do we accept that there should be no race and it’s a qualifying race, and you do one on Saturday, one on Sunday, and the guy who qualifies pole get some points and gets a little trophy, number one on Sunday gets some more points, because that’s what we love most.
“I think that’s what you guys enjoy watching the most. And 99% of the other people in Monaco are here sipping champagne on a yacht. So they don’t really care…”
Adam Cooper F1 