Ted Kravitz stunned by key Mercedes trigger for Lewis Hamilton-George Russell shunt

Sky F1 pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz cannot fathom why Mercedes did not orchestrate the Qatar GP start between their drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, as the pair instead collided.

Hamilton had a grip advantage off the line by virtue of his soft tyres, while Russell and Max Verstappen ahead were on mediums, but Hamilton would not get the chance to make use of that benefit.

As he looked to go around the outside of Russell at Turn 1, the Mercedes team-mates collided, sending Hamilton spinning off and out into the gravel, a shunt for which he took full responsibility.

Ted Kravitz cannot understand Mercedes logic

In Kravitz’s opinion, Mercedes dropped the ball by not coming up with a plan at the start, whereby Russell and Hamilton would be told not to fight, leaving Hamilton free to challenge Verstappen with his more grippy Pirelli rubber.

Asked on theSky F1 podcastwhether this collision has been coming for a while, amidst signs of growing tension between the Mercedes drivers, Kravitz replied: “Maybe, and you might be able to say that had they been on the same tyres at the start of the race, but they weren’t.

“And that’s what probably underlines the frustration at Mercedes was that they were on different strategies.

“And if at the end, or the middle of an end of the race, the drivers are quite happy to swap positions because they’re obviously on different strategies, and it’s not going to affect them, it’s not a measure of their racing ability if you’re ordering the team to let one pass the other, it’s just sound management, then why wouldn’t have occurred at the first corner of the first lap? [sic]

“Because surely, they have discussed the fact that Lewis was on a different strategy on the soft tyre in the first stint? And his race really depended, because he had so few laps on his medium and his hard tyres, on getting in front of Max and making that soft tyre work for him, maybe slowing down the pace on that soft tyre and getting a good stint length out of the soft tyre.

“Because if you include the soft tyres, he actually had some good stint length in his allocation, but then George fighting him, negated all of that.

“And I’m not saying it’s George’s fault, Lewis admitted moving across on him, so I don’t understand why it wouldn’t have been the Mercedes strategy to say, ‘Okay, guys, this is what we’re going to do. Lewis is on the soft, he is going to come around you, George, you are not going to fight him and he is going to try and get Max’.

“And so George would have understood that they weren’t racing each other, and that Lewis was going round. Lewis would have known that, so maybe taken a wider line.

“That’s why it just seemed to be so frustrating, because we never saw what was going to happen and Lewis was on a completely different strategy.”

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Mercedes threw away P2 and P3 finish

While Russell went on to recover to P4 at the chequered flag, Sky F1 pundit Karun Chandhok says Mercedes had a double podium on the cards without that collision, believing they had the pace to fight McLaren.

Instead then, it was Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris who claimed P2 and P3 respectively to make it a double McLaren podium.

That being said, Chandhok was not convinced that Mercedes could have orchestrated the start in the manner Kravitz suggested to avoid that crash.

“I think it’s very hard to orchestrate that off the start of the race,” he claimed.

“At the end of the day, you’re so reliant on how different people get off the line, you can’t arrive at the first corner of the race and be looking in your mirrors to see, ‘Oh, I’m here, the first corner, where’s my team-mate? I need to back off, let him pass’.

“通用电气orge, and he said it, he’s looking forward, because at the start of the race, you have to look forward, you have to look at where other cars are around you, as much as have some spatial awareness, sure, but the focus is looking forward and driving forward.

“I fully get the mentality Ted in what you’re saying, if you’re starting on a soft tyre, you want to make hay while the sun shines and capitalise on the first few laps. 100 per cent that is what I think Lewis’ mentality was as he went for the dive around the outside.

“But just the whole thing, it was really unfortunate for the team because they had a quick car. And I think if they hadn’t have had that issue, I think the fight between them and the McLarens would have been actually quite good.

“And they would have finished ahead of the McLarens. Because the McLarens was starting sixth and 10th. And as all that unfolded, the path opened or young Piastri to just sneak up the inside and get into second. So, Mercedes gave away a second and third place really there.”

Mercedes remain P2 in theConstructors’ Championshipheading into the next round, the United States GP, but the battle is still very much on with Ferrari only 28 points behind.

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