George Russell, Mercedes Formula 1 driver, defended the decision of soft tyres for Qatar Grand Prix sprint. He insisted it “wasn’t stupid” despite under performance of the selected tyres.
Russell was among the pack of drivers which opted for the softer tyres. The pack includes drivers from Ferrari, Alpine and Aston Martin.
The British driver started fourth on the grid and quickly took the lead surpassing Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Oscasr Piastri. But the tyres did not perform as expected. The softer tyres soon compromised his position as they began to wear off.
Russell suggested to make a pit stop during safety car for fresher tyres to compensate for the loss of performance. However, the team opted otherwise which resulted him to fall back to his initial position. Nonetheless, he shared no regrets after finishing the race and remained content regarding the strategy.
He defended the tyre choice, “We didn’t go in with the mentality that it was going to be a punt or a gamble.
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“We didn’t use the tyre in practice. We thought the tyre was similar to the medium.
“And we thought we needed to gather the data ahead of ahead of tomorrow. Had we started on the medium, I think we would have finished in the same place.
“We knew that the soft tyre would offer about seven metres into the first corner. But it’s so easy to fall back when you get a bit of wheelspin, you just drop like a stone. I had that in the last race, I think it was a really bad start. We took advantage.
“I don’t think we’ve ever seen a sprint race where the tyre has degraded like this.
“So with all of the information we had from the previous 10 or 12 sprint races we’ve had, we’ve never had a race like this. So the decision wasn’t stupid and it wasn’t a gamble. It was made with the right process. It just didn’t work out.”
Russell claims the usage of softer tyre wasn’t part of any strategy to save mediums for the main race.
“No, not really, to be honest,” he said. “I don’t know exactly where the overall allocation is. We truly thought the soft was going to be a viable race tyre.
“We saw in Silverstone on the C1/2/3 that the soft tyre was performing well. But clearly, this circuit is bit different with the new tarmac.”
