Mercedes should have listened to George Russell at 2022 F1 Japanese GP, admits team's trackside engineer after making poor pit stop call

Mercedes trackside engineer Andrew Shovlin agreed with George Russell's remarks post the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix. The driver wanted the team to pit him a lap later and was critical of the time lost in his double stacking.

In the team's debrief, Shovlin explained what went wrong during the race. Admitting that the team should have listened to George Russell, he said:

“We’ve gone through all the timing of that and we’ve concluded no, it wasn’t the right decision. We should have done what George was asking, which was to give him the lap in clean air. Now, we had seen the intermediates were a lot quicker, so on the wets you would have lost time on track."

Shovlin further explained that Russell and teammate Lewis Hamilton were close to each other which caused the time loss. He explained:

“But the problem was George and Lewis were a bit too close for us to be able to do the pit-stop without losing some time, and that time ultimately cost George the position to [Yuki] Tsunoda and possibly even to Lando [Norris]. So it gave him a bit more of a challenge to deal with, having to pass those cars to try and find any clean air.”

George Russell finished in P8 after the failed Mercedes strategy, while Hamilton finished in P5. Overall, the race was a big challenge for the two Britons who struggled individually in their own ways.

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Wrong set-up cost George Russell and Hamilton their pace at Suzuka

Mercedes was clearly nowhere near its true pace at the Japanese GP. They struggled so much owing to their incorrect setup and high tire degradation. In fact, the W13's deficit to even an Alpine was six to eight km/hr.

Explaining George Russell and Hamilton's visible struggles, Shovlin reflected on their highest downforce setting. He said:

“We were going to get high [tire] degradation in the dry, but we had also seen this rain that was coming in on Sunday and we felt that in a wet race that might be a benefit.”

He continued:

“As it happens, the DRS was never enabled, and that meant that overtaking was very, very hard and perhaps the right decision would have been a lower downforce setting.”

Hamilton was stuck behind Esteban Ocon for most of the race and despite often coming close, could not manage an overtake. George Russell, on the other hand, managed a few overtakes, but still had a spoiled race due to the poor pit stop call.