Mercedes thinks team orders could have saved it from Barcelona defeat

Mercedes could have won the race in Barcelona had it called off the fighting between George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, according to team boss Toto Wolff.

Mercedes suffered its first grand prix defeat of the season, with Lewis Hamilton beating pole-getter George Russell in a strategic victory during an afternoon of high tire degradation in sweltering conditions.

The key to Hamilton’s victory was his rapid third stint on medium tires. Clearly committed to a three-stop strategy, his odds of victory hinged on him making up as much ground as possible to the Mercedes drivers before he and they made their final stops. He was helped with that objective by Russell and Antonelli sparring for what at the time was still the lead of the race, costing both drivers time and accelerating Hamilton’s gains.

Antonelli had clearly been the quicker of the two Mercedes drivers but was unable to make his way past his teammate until the final stint, by which time Hamilton had already assumed the lead after making a third pit stop during a virtual safety car. But Wolff mused whether a team order instructing Russell to let Antonelli past earlier in the race could have protected Mercedes against the timing of the VSC.

“Clearly Kimi had the advantage,” he acknowledged. “We didn't interfere in them fighting, because that's how we've always raced, but it's a situation we need to look into for the future with both drivers – how to handle a situation where there's a pace differential if we are fighting for a victory or at risk of losing a victory.

“That's going to be an interesting discussion, but always totally transparent in the best interests of the team.”

Though he added that there he couldn’t be sure track position would have been enough to beat Hamilton, he said the threat of Ferrari challenging for both titles following the team’s strong performance meant Mercedes couldn’t avoid a discussion about team orders.

“Lewis was the quickest afterwards – even if we would have come out in front of him, it would have been very tricky to hold him behind,” he said.

“There is a third party now getting involved in the championship fight, constructor and driver. In that respect we will discuss internally with the two drivers how we want to handle the situation where we risk holding each other up.

“I think it's not going to be a problem, it's just maybe we need to recalibrate.”

Russell agreed that the battle with Antonelli had disadvantaged him but admitted his race pace had been poor beforehand, though he suggested a compromised tire strategy played a role.

“If I was in the race on my own and there were no other drivers and I was doing a two-stop, I would not have pitted on lap 13,” he said. “Now, you’re never in the race on your own; you’re reacting to your competitors, and [Ferrari] put us in a very challenging position to pit this early.

“The truth is my pace wasn’t quite strong enough today, but I do think I could have just mirrored his strategy on the three-stop, but that would have maybe left me exposed to Kimi on the two-stop and maybe I wouldn’t have been happy about that in the end, so, I need to go through it with my team.”