SAN FRANCISCO, December 06, (THEWILL) – British racing driver, George Russell, earned the first points of his Formula 1 career at the Sakhir Grand Prix on Sunday, as the stewards decided to give Mercedes a fine rather than an outright disqualification after they fitted the wrong tyres to the Briton’s car during a pit stop.
Russell was brought in for Lewis Hamilton who tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the event.
On Sunday, as reported by THEWILL, he was dominating the race in Bahrain and was on course to score a remarkable maiden victory on Sakhir’s unique Outer Loop layout.
However, it was not to be because when the Safety Car was called out two-thirds into the race and Mercedes called both Russell and team mate Valtteri Bottas into the pits, there was a mix up that led to accidentally fitting Bottas’ front tyres to Russell’s car.
As an explanation, the stewards heard that there was a “radio communications technical issue” which meant Russell’s crew did not hear the pit wall’s call to get ready for Russell because at the same time, a message from Russell was played out on top of that call.
In their ruling on the incident, the stewards noted: “This is clearly a breach of the regulations and would normally involve a sporting penalty up to disqualification.”
Rather than penalising the driver, the FIA opted to fine the team because “in this case, there are mitigating circumstances, additional to the radio issue referred to above”.
The stewards said:
“Firstly, the team rectified the problem within one lap. This involved Car 63 [Russell] making another pit stop, thus dropping it further down the classification.
“Secondly, Car 77 [Bottas] made a pit stop to change tyres only to find that the front tyres to be fitted to it, were on Car 63, so was sent out after considerable delay, with the tyres that were on Car 77 prior to the pit stop. This also impacted the final classification of Car 77.
“Thirdly, although this type of infringement is not catered for under the “three-lap tolerance” referred to in the second paragraph of Article 24.4 b) (which currently only refers to the use of tyres of differing specifications), we consider it to be similar in nature.
“However, the responsibility to fit tyres in compliance with the regulations, still rests with any team and thus a penalty is considered as being required. It is recommended that the FIA consider amending Article 24.4 b) to accommodate this type of breach when it is rectified without delay.”
They added that “this type of breach has not previously been experienced in Formula 1.”
The fine for the team means Russell gets to keep his first points. He scored tw
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
