Mercedes opted to retire George Russell from the British Grand Prix in order to prevent an engine penalty.

The Mercedes driver was one of 14 drivers to take on new power unit components over the Silverstone weekend, the Briton having previously used just 2 of his allowed four.

However, with a further 12 races, and Pierre Gasly having been the first to exceed his allowance, teams are already fearing that over the course of the forthcoming months other drivers could follow suit.

With that in mind, when Russell began to suffer a water system issue during Sunday's race the Silvers Arrows thought it better to be safe than sorry.

"Unfortunately, we knew that we had an issue relatively early in the race," explains the team's trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin in the latest video debrief, "so we were tracking this from the first stint.

"We didn't know that it was going to be terminal," he admits, "but it's all linked to a leak that was in the water system that was causing the pressure to start to drift, and ultimately when we stopped the car, it was to protect the power unit.

"So we knew that we were never going to finish the race," he adds. "What you don't want to do is finish the race and destroy the power unit, then you'll be looking at a penalty possibly later in the year.

"So it was preventative, but there was no way that we were going to get to the chequered flag."

Starting from pole,. Russell led the first 17 laps of the race before being passed by his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in quick succession.

Double-stacked with his teammate as the conditions worsened, Russell rejoined the race in fifth, however it was shortly after that the team became aware of the temperature of his power unit rising due to a water system issue.

Though he had struggled ahead of the initial pit stop, such was his pace at the beginning of the race that it is widely felt that as things developed and slicks became viable again he might have secured a podium finish.

Andrew Shovlin isn't entirely sure.

"With a race like that, with the changing conditions, it's quite hard to say this is where we would have finished," he says. "If it had been a dry race start to finish, looking at how George got off the line, how he was able to build a gap, I think he would have had a pretty straightforward afternoon.

"But if you take the point where we actually decided to retire the car, we were on Intermediates, George was in P4, he was closing in on Max, so that was looking good.

"But to get him on the podium, he would have probably had to overtake Max at that point realistically, because we called the stop lap correct with Lewis when we went to dry tyres. So I think earlier it might have been a bit too damp.

"So as I said, minimum of P4, but there would have been a shot at a podium if he could have passed Max on track on the Inters."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 13/07/2024 13:47

"@superbird70 - my interpretation of what Shovlin said here is that as the race progressed, Mercedes knew for certain they’d be unable to get to the end of the race. They didn’t know in the early stages, but that changed as the race went on. The discussion about Russell’s possible finishing position is speculation about the outcome had they not had the water leak that forced the retirement. Since the retirement became inevitable, it’s a moot point. "

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2. Posted by Superbird70, 12/07/2024 17:49

"So minimum P4, but 'we were never going to finish the race', and 'We didn't know it was going to be terminal' but 'there was no way that we were going to get to the chequered flag'. You think that Russell might get frustrated hearing that played back?
I understand that they risked taking a grid penalty later, but giving up the chance to push Verstappen to fourth and having a double Mercedes podium seems like they lost their ability to take calculated risks. Or they just wanted the spotlight on Hamilton."

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Russell's Silverstone retirement "preventative"

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