“The decision stands on the...”: Mercedes review why George Russell was pitted so early in the Australian F1 GP

Mercedes' James Allison has revealed why the team decided to pit George Russell early during the 2023 Australian GP. The Briton looked to get a 'cheap' stop under the first safety car but lost out after stewards decided to stop the session with a red flag.

Russell got the jump on pole-sitter Max Verstappen at the start of the race and was running well before the team asked him to pit under the safety car. The former Williams driver got back out in P7 before the first red flag of the session, causing him to lose out to the front runners.

The team's call to pit the one-time race winner was a controversial one given the immense amount of debris on track following Alex Albon's shunt. Allison, who returned to Mercedes in 2022, gave his reasons in the race debrief, saying:

"Because it was quite early in the race. It was around lap eight or so. That early in the race, it's right on the cusp of whether a safety car stop is going to help you out or leave you a little bit worse off. And so, you can see when that happened, we chose to split our cars. We brought George in but left Lewis out because at that point it's very finely balanced whether you are going to get a benefit from the stop or not. And by bringing one in and not the other then you are splitting your risk; it's like an each way bet."

The Mercedes engineer concluded:

"I think the decision stands on the merits that we were considering when we made it, but obviously once the red flag came out then it clearly meant that George lost out a little bit."

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Toto Wolff claims Mercedes have made a step forward after Melbourne podium

According to Toto Wolff, his team has made progress during the 2023 Australian GP, where Lewis Hamilton finished in second place.

The Silver Arrows performed exceptionally well during the weekend at Albert Park, with Hamilton and Russell qualifying in P3 and P2, respectively. The team's performance further improved on Sunday as Russell overtook Verstappen at the start of the race, with Hamilton doing the same at Turn 3.

This allowed Mercedes to take the lead with a 1-2 position in the early stages of the race. Unfortunately, Russell had to retire due to a DNF, but Hamilton managed to maintain his position in P2, earning the team's first podium of the season.

After the race, team boss Wolff was ecstatic, saying:

"We had strong pace today, and it was really close with the Aston Martins and the Ferraris. That is good news for us, and I think we have made a step forward this weekend, both on one lap and race pace. We maximised what we have, and we need to now comb through the data and continue to learn about the car. This will help bring the upgrade packages, and that will be the key in challenging the leaders more often."

With Mercedes slowly making their way to the top again, it will be interesting to follow their 2023 season.