Formula One has once again delivered a new circuit where racing looks nigh on impossible. The much-hyped new home of the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid was a snooze-fest as the drivers found it impossible to overtake due to the track layout.
The Madring was a rushed affair, with work only commencing less than eighteen months before it was due to host its first Grand Prix. Politics was behind the move of the Spanish Grand Prix from Barcelona, which is the capital of the Catalunya region, whose people on the whole wish to break away from the Spanish government in Madrid.
All Hype, Zero Overtaking
For a change, the generally hated new F1 engines were not the focus of attention at the Madring debut event; it was the fact that a multi-hundred-million-dollar venue was designed without racing in mind. Optics are everything in F1 these days, and the much-hyped ‘La Monumental’ 180-degree banked corner was billed as the best thing since F1 abandoned the banking in Monza, which killed drivers pretty much every season.
Yet ‘La Monumental’ was a waste of time, given the approach and exit mean there is just one line for the drivers to take through the corner, unlike Indianapolis, which hosts the fastest races on earth. Pirelli made matters worse by bringing a range of tyres which included the C2 hard that proved to be bulletproof on the all-new, super-smooth, and unabrasive new asphalt.
The Hard Tyre Marathon and VSC Chaos
A number of the drivers started the race on the hard tyre, including Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who easily completed a 55-lap (out of 57) stint on the compound with barely any drop-off in pace. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’ George Russell were amongst the front-runners who chose these tyres too, with the objective of running deep into the race before switching to the more fragile C3 medium compounds.
So when the virtual safety car was deployed on lap 14 to ensure the race marshals could recover Lance Stroll’s stricken Aston Martin, those who started on softer tyres than the C2 hard gleefully took the opportunity to take a pit stop, which was around 11 seconds quicker than when competed under green flag racing.
Mercedes’ Baffling Call
All the drivers who started the race on the hard tyre predictably remained on track, given the C3 or C4 softer tyres would not complete the remaining race distance—except George Russell in his Mercedes. Inexplicably, Mercedes decided to call Russell in to fit the medium compound tyre, which they knew would not complete the race distance, thus committing their driver to the unfancied two-stop strategy.
When asked to explain this strange strategic decision, the Mercedes assistant team principal, Bradley Lord, had the following to say: “He headed into the race starting on the hard tyre from P6 with a plan to do a one-stop. When the VSC came out he was the second car running on the hard tyre behind Leclerc’s Ferrari. Therefore we called for George to do a ‘box opposite to Leclerc’.”
Leclerc was ahead on track and led the race on his hard tyres until the closing stages, and the rest of the drivers starting on the hard tyre also remained out, hoping for a safety car or red flag, which was expected given the number of incidents which had preceded during the weekend in F1, F2, and F3.
Defending the Indefensible?
When asked to explain Mercedes’ thinking—which was clearly different from every other team—Bradley Lord stated the obvious: “Why? Because had we not done so he would have simply followed Leclerc to the finish. The opportunity to undercut was very, very limited, and the opportunity to overtake was almost non-existent for cars on similar age tyres.”
“So we put George onto the medium,” Lord continued. “We knew that medium wasn’t going to be able to do 43 laps to the end, but in doing something different—so George did a 20-lap stint, and then we jumped back onto the hard tyre, because you wanted to be on that hard tyre for as much of the race as possible.”
The Mercedes assistant team boss then speculated that in fact the pace of Russell in the closing stages had put Ferrari under pressure, forcing them to pit Leclerc on lap 45—earlier than they really wanted to. “This then gave Kimi the free air up front, but also then George was pressuring Leclerc in those final laps on that soft tyre that was quite fragile, and actually ended the race only 0.7 seconds behind,” Lord concluded.
The Real Motive: Intra-Team Politics
Yet a number of things are strange about the Mercedes decision. Kimi would have inherited the lead of the race when Leclerc stopped anyway—it had nothing to do with Russell and his tyre strategy. Add to this that no other team elected for this strategy, and it appears Mercedes are not being honest about the real reason they pitted George so early in the race.
Given the politics within Mercedes, the real reason was quite simple. Had Mercedes not pitted Russell, they would have faced a situation where he had track position over his teammate. And with tyres refusing to degrade and overtaking nigh on impossible, Mercedes were concerned they may have to intervene and issue team orders at some point.
Even worse, had there been a late VSC/SC, Russell would have pitted then and fitted faster new medium tyres. This too would have created a potential scenario where the team would have to tell Antonelli to move aside for his quicker teammate.
The truth behind Russell’s bizarre early pit stop whilst on the bulletproof hard tyres was that it was all about intra-team politics. And as it turned out, it probably made little difference to his finishing position because the “Madring” was so poorly designed for racing.
Championship Outlook and the Road Ahead
Leclerc, who stopped with twelve laps remaining and fitted the faster soft tyre, was in fact coming under pressure from Russell on his second set of hard tyres, which were 23 laps old at the chequered flag. Yet that was more to do with the fact that the Ferrari driver lost a significant amount of time towards the end of his first stint of 45 laps, as the red team strategists were hoping for a late safety car to elevate him to a podium position.
Now 81 points clear, barring an accident like Isack Hadjar suffered, which would keep him out of F1 for three or four races, Kimi Antonelli is set to become Formula One’s youngest ever champion, some three years younger than Sebastian Vettel, who currently holds the record. Yet Mercedes’ politics remain a dominant force in how they let their drivers go racing.
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The Judge, a nom de plume of an experienced F1 journalist and site founder with long-standing sources across the paddock. With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
