George Russell was overruled by Mercedes for decisive pit call before red flag

George Russell has admitted he was overruled when deciding to pit just before the red flag at the F1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Russell led the first half of the race at Interlagos after taking the lead ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.

With the conditions worsening, Russell and Norris came in for fresh intermediates, allowing Esteban Ocon to inherit the lead of the race ahead of Max Verstappen.

With visibility poor, the Safety Car was deployed which was soon turned into a red flag after Franco Colapinto’s crash.

This gave Ocon, Verstappen and Pierre Gasly a free change of tyres, and crucial track position.

Reflecting on the decision to stop, Russell said as quoted by Motorsport Week: “Yeah, very painful, all things considered.

“It was ‘box’. I said ‘stay out’. It was ‘box’ again, it was ‘stay out’, I said. And they said ‘box’ again.

“As I said, ‘I want to stay out’. And then the last one, you’ve got to go for it…

“Sometimes you have to trust your gut. Last time I trusted my gut, it went down pretty well.

“Today, who knows if we could have won the race? But if we didn’t pit, we would have been leading at the restart and the first 30 laps controlling the pace.

“With Lando behind us, we had very good straight-line speed as well. P2 would have been a minimum.”

Russell revealed Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ trackside engineering chief, overruled his engineer to pit for new tyres when conditions got worse.

“From a team’s perspective, it’s not obvious at all,” he added.

“From the cockpit, it was very clear it was going to be a red flag or Safety Car, because the conditions were undriveable.

“The rain was not easing. I could see the big black cloud above me.

“And then I had Shov jump on as, like, overruling my engineer to say ‘box’. We’re working as a team, we’re trying to make the best decisions in the time.

“Clearly the guys who didn’t pit, they finished 1-2-3 and we finished the highest of the drivers who did. So I would take a small slice of satisfaction from that.”