A problem in Russell’s Formula 1 race could have ruined his victory in Brazil

Russell scored his first Formula One victory This Sunday in Interlagos, after dominating the race and leading a double in front of his teammate, Lewis Hamilton.

That ended a long dry period mercedes, and prevented them from completing the season without a win with one test remaining. Also, it came after two years Russell was cruelly denied a more than likely win at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prixin his first appearance with Mercedes as a substitute for the seven-time champion.

But after the race Sao Paulo GB It turns out that a problem with Russell’s car left Mercedes out in a cold sweat and fearing it might not make it to the checkered flag, revealing a water leak midway through the test.

“We had hydraulic leaks in the car almost the entire race, and it wasn’t clear we could make it to the finish,” the team manager said, toto wolf.

The team explained that at some point he let the water seep George Russell With the risk of abandonment high, but the car held up and made it to the finish line.

Russell was not informed of the problem with his car, and Wolff explained that the team members “all agreed that we would let him drive to the finish, even without water, with all we could to cool him down, and try to finish the race.”

Russell defeated Max Verstappen In a wheeled battle in Saturday’s sprint race for first place in the featured race, then managed to repel Red Bull From Sergio Perez In the opening period on Sunday.

At the last minute he was threatened by Hamilton, who was free to race Russell on restart after the last safety car and had tires two times newer than his young teammate’s group.

Russell was heard asking at one point if the team would allow drivers to race, but Wolff said they never considered giving team orders.

“As a team, we’ve always defended freestyle racing, never doing anything else, unless one driver is sportingly uncontested for the championship and the other is,” said the Austrian.

“In fact, we were looking forward to them racing on the same tire, and we discussed it this morning at the strategy meeting.”

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