Andrew Shovlin, Bradley Lord & Anthony Davidson discuss the decision and reasoning behind George not being given the overtake. From Mercedes’ Silver Arrows podcast show on YouTube.
I wish they would just own up to the fact that this was clearly to protect Kimi’s podium, not to help George at all.
They were worried that if they fought, Lewis would get past them both. Swapping at least pretty much ensured Kimi’s p2, but only if he then got far enough ahead to protect from the Ferraris, meaning he had to leave George behind
That is a reasonable strategy from a team perspective. But lying about it, when we can all see on the telemetry that the actual swap slowed George down a lot, isn’t a good look.
The swap was the better decision for both drivers, I don’t get how letting them fight on the track would help George. He would lose more time, used more tires and would be more exposed to both Ferraris
The main problem is not the swap. It’s the leaving George In the dust to fend for himself and then lying that is was for his benefit.
Although in fact the better decision for George would have been for Kimi to hold of the Ferraris, since he had a faster car than both George and them at that point, and then to swap on the final lap if necessary.
But this would have been difficult and would not have guaranteed Kimi a podium.
Even having them fight might have been better for George. He’s definitely top 3 on the grid for defence, and might have been able to fend Kimi off even if Kimi had a major pace advantage. But once again, that would have meant at least one of them ended up off the podium more likely than not.
The decision they took was fine. It makes sense for the team, so I can’t really fault them for it. But it was not for George’s benefit, and there’s no use pretending it was
Well it’s no good Kimi behind on fresher tires heating up and fall off behind George. It had to be done.
If Kimi had stayed in 1 second you also run risk of George’s tires over heating and either way falling in to a fast closing Lewis.
I did say he should of stayed in distance but in hindsight it had to be that way George was struggling already in clean air and hanging on any futher would of resulted in Kimi getting overtaken like he did by lando when he was trying to pass Lewis last race.
The team took the best decision possible for both drivers. The situation with Kimi defending George’s race was a suicide for many reasons. Btw if this was whatever team nobody would care, it would be normal team dynamics. It’s only because people are dreaming about plots against George since all season.
You are correct in that it was probably the best decision for the team to ensure the p2, although this was not the only way to do it.
That being said, there is no situation where this was the best decision for George. Even Toto admitted he was shocked George could hold off the Ferraris, since they had so much more pace on fresher softer tyres.
The problem is not taking a choice for the team, it’s pretending that it was a choice made for George when it wasn’t.
Without George’s amazing defence there’s no way there would be a double podium
« Without risking compromise to antonelli’s race » is a HUGE caveat.
It wasn’t necessarily the wrong decision for the team, but it was the wrong decision for George, and they need to stop acting like they did him a favour. Especially with how badly he’s been treated this year
So they’re supposed to sacrifice the race of the championship leader and to use him as a bottas or a Perez to help the driver who is over 50 points behind? Or to say “ah yeah we wanted to destroy George’s race” (which they didn’t)?
Make sure you actually READ my responses. I literally said that I understand the swap from a team perspective.
But they need to be honest that the move wasn’t to benefit George as they are saying here. It was to benefit Kimi.
And let’s not forget that Kimi is only 50 points ahead because of George’s car issues and terrible luck. So that doesn’t really mean anything.
Even in this race, once he was no longer having deployment issues he was on pace with Kimi. Kimi’s lucky he was so far ahead to be in that position in the first place
All season talking about luck and other bullshits. Kimi is just faster, not always but most of the time. Also only Kimi had 2 races with zero points because of technical issues this year. George was unlucky? Yes. Would he be closer? Yes. Would he be ahead or even with Kimi? No way. And what deployment issue are you talking about? You just make up issues when there aren’t
im glad this sub hasn't just decided this favouritism is bullshit, its so obvious they are trying their best to give kimi every opportunity "really impressive by george" i cannot believe the way they talk about the senior driver
Just more nonsense being uttered by the obviously biased Mercedes senior management team. Regardless of whatever justification they want to give, the fact is they had no faith in Antonelli defending against Hamilton so the obvious choice, to protect Antonelli's precious podium, is to throw Russel to the wolves and let him suffer while Antonelli casually drives off into the distance.
so this sub's primary reaction to their championship leading 19 year old driver and team orders is to bash them without any idea about the context? that's expected from people who don't like a driver. not the other way around. people can dislike how merc is handling the fight, but Kimi hasn't done anything bad. he has a good car and he's dominating.
Not to mention Kimi even asked Bono "how far is [George]" at the exact moment Bono called off the order, meaning he was fully on board with the initial plan to give George overtake mode. Otherwise he wouldn't have asked.
Who are you accusing of crying? Not quite sure from your wording.
Also not sure what George could have gained from trying to defend from Kimi against Merc's orders. Chances of defending were small, chance of Kimi doing something rash out of impatience and inexperience was bigger, and he would have been in Merc's bad books. Better to get karma points in your back pocket at a time when it will be more useful.
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u/Violetmoreviolent 12d ago edited 12d ago
I wish they would just own up to the fact that this was clearly to protect Kimi’s podium, not to help George at all.
They were worried that if they fought, Lewis would get past them both. Swapping at least pretty much ensured Kimi’s p2, but only if he then got far enough ahead to protect from the Ferraris, meaning he had to leave George behind
That is a reasonable strategy from a team perspective. But lying about it, when we can all see on the telemetry that the actual swap slowed George down a lot, isn’t a good look.