Lewis Hamilton and George Russell crossed paths several times at the Japanese Grand Prix. The two Mercedes drivers started the race from seventh and eighth positions and ended up fifth and seventh.
On the way to this result, which on paper was rather unspectacular, the two came dangerously close on several occasions. The first duel takes place on lap 5, when Russell initially pushes past Hamilton at the chicane, but the record world champion counters in turn 1 and keeps P7.
While it’s still quiet on the radio, Russell is angry for the first time on lap 16. “Hey, do we want to fight against each other or against the others?” radioed the Mercedes driver after Hamilton had previously made a mistake in the second Degner corner.
Russell then attacks, but Hamilton defends himself and even slightly pushes his teammate off the track. “I was definitely aggressive, but I think it was good racing,” emphasized Hamilton after the race.
The two then parted ways because Hamilton came into the pits at the end of the lap. Because he has a two-stop strategy, but Russell will only stop once, the two only meet again in the final phase of the race.
Hamilton would have liked to have swapped places earlier
Russell is in fifth position and Hamilton is catching up with his teammate on significantly fresher tires. The problem from Mercedes’ point of view: Carlos Sainz is around 2.5 seconds behind Hamilton, which is why they can’t afford another duel between the two.
Russell explains after the race that they had “lost a little time fighting against each other”. But because Sainz is now directly behind the two, Russell receives the instruction on the radio: “Don’t give us any time [im Kampf gegen Hamilton] lose.”
And Hamilton’s race engineer Peter Bonnington radioed after the near-contact earlier in the race: “Just make sure you give yourself enough space.” But Hamilton can’t get past Russell at first, and shortly afterwards Sainz is within less than a second and is stuck in his DRS.
“We will lose both positions,” radios Hamilton, who explains after the race: “We would have [die Plätze] “I should have swapped earlier and I should have gotten as far forward as possible to keep the gap to the Ferrari as big as possible.”
In this case, says Hamilton, “George would have [Sainz] maybe we can keep it behind us better. But since he tried to fight me and damaged his tires, that just complicated things.” Shortly afterwards, the Mercedes team intervened.
Russell demands DRS as reparation
Hamilton receives a message on the radio that the positions will be swapped in Turn 1. In fact, Russell receives the instruction from the team: “We will swap positions. But watch out for Sainz with DRS.” However, the Brit first tries to negotiate.
He suggests waiting until the last lap to swap places “if he doesn’t fight for a better result.” Or to put it another way: If the top 4 is no longer achievable for Hamilton, he should stay behind him and defend himself against Sainz with DRS.
However, the team has other plans and radios Russell: “That’s an order, George. Let’s swap positions.” At the same time, Hamilton is informed: “George has received instructions that we will swap positions in Turn 1.”
Shortly before swapping places, Russell is radioed again by his race engineer Marcus Dudley: “That’s an instruction, we will [die Positionen] Swap.” Russell replies, slightly irritated: “Yes, I hear you! He’s not even close to me.”
On lap 49 of 53, he took his foot off the accelerator in Turn 1 as planned and let Hamilton pass. But the whole thing isn’t over yet, because Bonnington now radios Hamilton: “We’ll try to help George. Try to keep him in the DRS.”
At the same time, Russell himself demands on the radio: “He pushed me off the track earlier. That’s the least he can do.” However, Hamilton revealed after the race that he was anything but convinced about the plan.
According to Hamilton, DRS games “made no sense”
“When they suggested it to me, I knew they were obviously thinking about it because of the previous race,” said the Brit. This refers to the end of the Singapore race, when Sainz deliberately gave Lando Norris DRS so that he could defend himself against the two Mercedes drivers.
“But it didn’t make any sense,” Hamilton waves off and explains that it was “not a good idea at all” because it would have been more important for him to get a lead over Sainz. “I was about two seconds ahead,” explains Hamilton.
“And they then asked me to give George DRS. So I had to let off the gas on the straight to leave him 0.8 seconds behind. Then he had DRS but was still overtaken. That had to happen because he was on one stop and we on two,” he shrugs.
In fact, Hamilton drives away after the maneuver against Russell, which is why his race engineer warns him: “We have to give George DRS. Let’s help him, he’s 1.3 [Sekunden] back.” Hamilton then does that – but unsuccessfully.
Because even though Russell has DRS, one lap after Hamilton, Sainz also passes him on significantly fresher tires. “We wasted all this time for no reason,” Hamilton said angrily on the radio. In the end, however, the excitement is in vain because he is able to defend P5 against Sainz until the finish.
Nevertheless, Hamilton said after the race, the situation was “not ideal”. “It made it very difficult in the last few laps, but I think as a team we have to be grateful for fifth and seventh place. That’s better than sixth and seventh place,” he emphasizes.
Russell has “no problems” with the swap
He thinks the duel with Russell at the end is unnecessary because it is “not important” which of the two is in front. “It’s important that one of us finishes ahead of the Ferrari for position [in der Konstrukteurs-WM] to keep. That’s why we really had to work as a team today,” said Hamilton.
For Russell, the whole topic has already been put to rest after the race. “We won’t even talk about it. There’s nothing to discuss,” he clarifies and explains that Mercedes will concentrate on much more important things internally.
We have to find out “how we can make our car faster,” says Russell, who, like Hamilton, explains: “The main goal is to get P2 in the constructors’ championship.” The Drivers’ World Championship no longer plays a role for him, so he has “no problems” with changing places.
He “of course” expected the trade, and in retrospect the team “made the right decision,” said Russell. Regarding the scenes before, he says it was “good, hard racing”. “We both just lost time on the cars around us,” he explains.
“I was happy that I was able to [Lewis] to put him under pressure and maneuver against him,” said Russell, who explained that his pace was “very strong considering how difficult the car was to drive this weekend.”
Incidentally, Hamilton himself reveals that he shouldn’t have been “in this position” to have to fight with Russell. In fact, he believes he would have been faster at Suzuka if he hadn’t collided with Sergio Perez at the start of the race.
Why you shouldn’t overestimate radio messages
“I think if I hadn’t been hit at the beginning we might have been able to fight for fourth place. But the Ferraris were pretty quick,” said Hamilton, who explained that under the circumstances P5 was “the best thing.” I could reach today.”
After the contact with Perez, he had “some damage to my front wing” and probably also other damage, which was not visible. He felt this clearly, especially in the last corner and in turn 9.
“I was doing well there all weekend, but I was steering and nothing happened,” he reports and explains: “I have the feeling that the front was hit so hard that I suddenly blocked the right front wheel, what I haven’t had it all weekend.”
“In view of this, I am grateful that I finished ahead of a Ferrari,” said Hamilton. Curious: During the safety car phase at the start of the race, Hamilton asked on the radio whether Russell could drive next to him for a moment to see “if he could see any damage.”
As is well known, later things became much less friendly. He admits that his maneuvers against his teammate were “a little aggressive,” “but that was necessary to get the position,” says Hamilton, and Russell emphasizes that one should not overestimate the radio messages during the race.
“You use the radio as a kind of outlet,” he explains, adding: “It’s so hot in the car, it’s a long race, you push for an hour and a half, you fight for every inch.” It’s normal to sometimes feel a bit “frustrated” on the radio.
Shovlin explains swap: Hamilton had the better chances”
But that’s just part of racing,” emphasizes Russell, and Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ technical director at the race track, explains: “It was clear to us early on that we wouldn’t be able to keep the drivers further up in the fight for the race to challenge for the podium.”
“That’s why for us in the race today it was ultimately about minimizing the loss of points to Ferrari. We split our strategies in order to have the best chance of doing so,” he explains and emphasizes: “Towards the end of the race, George’s chances were relatively small, To keep Sainz behind him.”
“Due to his one-stop strategy, George had a significant tire disadvantage compared to the Ferrari. The reason we chose this strategy was that we had little to lose – there was no danger behind Sainz,” said Shovlin.
“It was difficult to implement this strategy, but George did a good job,” he praises and adds: “In the end, the tire degradation was too high to make it. Given that, we had to protect Lewis from giving up the position to Sainz lose.”
“He was the driver who had the greater probability of a better result. That’s why we gave the instruction to swap places on the track,” Shovlin explains the background to the decision. At least this goal was achieved in the end.
In the World Championship, however, Ferrari still moved a little closer to Mercedes in the fight for second place because Charles Leclerc came fourth in Suzuka. The Scuderia was able to reduce the gap from 24 to 20 points.