Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were involved in a duel at the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Qatar, with the former apologizing to the latter.
It wasn’t the start Mercedes were hoping for at the F1 Qatar GP, as Hamilton tried to overtake Red Bull’s Max Verstappen from the outside at Turn 1, cornering teammate Russell in the process. He retired quickly, but the latter was damaged.
Initially, they accused each other, but Hamilton quickly defended himself after seeing the replay. “I saw the replay and it was 100% my fault and I take full responsibility. I apologize to my team and George,” he said on his Twitter/X.
Hamilton started on the soft compound and quickly gained more grip against Verstappen and Russell, but ultimately fell victim to tight maneuvers. The FIA Commissioner agreed that this was an opportunistic attempt, but ultimately classified it as a typical Round 1 situation.
Russell eventually made a big comeback to take 4th place, but given their speed, he wanted more at the end. The Mercedes couple gave each other a thumbs up after the race, simultaneously signaling that everything is fine and that things like this happen at odd times.
“There are no hard feelings. We are here to fight for the team and give our best. We made a bad decision today, but our car was very strong and I’m proud of the whole team. “I think it’s time to regroup and build on the good pace we’ve had in Austin,” Russell said.
So said Bradley Lord (deputy) and the Mercedes trio –
Reflect on incident –
Hamilton: “In the heat of the moment, I think he was obviously frustrated because he felt the impact from behind, but George didn’t have anywhere else to go. I think that was it.” Just an unfortunate scenario. That’s my role, so I want to take responsibility. I’ll have to go back and look into it, but I don’t think it’s George’s fault. ”
Pre-race discussions –
Hamilton: “Before the race, we knew George was on different tires, so we just talked about trying to work together. And again, we were all united. It’s not that the plan is really disappointing for the team, because we’ve all worked hard to get to this position, and I’m really proud of everyone for playing my role in that. I’m sad. I was on soft tyres, but the people around me were on medium tyres, so I had to pass Max.”
All well with Russell –
Hamilton: “The relationship hasn’t broken down. I don’t have any problems with George, we have a great relationship, we work all the time, we talk about things. So it’s definitely disappointing and I think he was as frustrated as I was at that moment. But we talk about it offline and move on. As I said earlier. However, I would like to apologize to the entire team.”
Sharing responsibility and subsequent apology –
Russell: “Lewis and I are fine. We have a lot of respect for each other and there was nothing intentional on either side. As I said on the radio, every incident involves two people and I definitely appreciate his words. .”
Potential Opportunities for Big Results –
Russell: “It was just a big missed opportunity for both of us. We have one goal: to finish second in the constructors’ championship. This morning we had a lot of discussions about how we would work together. The battle was not with each other, but with Ferrari. Fortunately, we still have more points than them this weekend. I believe we were on pace or if not faster than the McLaren. And it was truly amazing to see Piastri narrowly fend off Max.
Team planning and strategy –
Road/Mercedes: “The game plan was…when we selected the medium and hard tires we knew there were still 59 racing laps left available. , was to trade between the new soft tires.” We thought the advantage at the start outweighed the potential loss later in the race. That explains this decision. We discussed possible scenarios during the first turn of our strategy meeting this morning. We discussed possible disagreements between the two drivers and how to deal with it, and what happened was clearly not part of the plan, but certainly not the intention of either side. was. ”
Collision and Handling –
Road/Mercedes: “I think the number one rule for a racing team is that if two cars make contact, the driver makes contact just like anyone else ”. One car going into the gravel trap, one car in the pit lane, and being last at the end of the first lap is a pretty bad situation for a first lap, but we’ll talk behind closed doors about how to deal with it. become. Both drivers were very generous after that. We’ll talk about that later. What has been special about this season is that we have helped the team recover from the difficult situation in which we started the car and continue to do so in the last five races to hopefully secure second place in the championship. I think it was just how well they worked together. ”
No blame game –
Sir/Mercedes: “I don’t think it’s my job to sit here and shift blame to either side. The drivers behave better on the track than I do. I think what I’m trying to say is that Lewis is able to do that and bring out his character and speak for himself, which means that a champion is only in the moment of victory. The fact that he was able to do this speaks volumes about his strength and character.”
The collision between these two is: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2023-qatar-grand-prix-hamilton-and-russells-lap-1-collision.1779211533313588278 .html
Watch Lewis Hamilton apologize to George Russell: https://x.com/MercedesAMGF1/status/1711107823726145827?s=20
This is the story of George Russell who almost passed out in his car
Here’s how F1 Qatar GP panned out
