Mercedes Overruled Russell When He Called for a 5-Second Penalty

George Russell urged Mercedes to attempt to serve the five-second time penalty he had not taken during the Monaco Grand Prix.

Mercedes decided not to follow his suggestion after telling Russell they believed the penalty had already been served. The stewards later determined Russell had not served the penalty and imposed a harsher sanction, costing him a points finish.

Russell’s issue began when he was given a five-second time penalty for exceeding the pit lane speed limit by 0.1 kph during his first pit stop. He should have served that penalty on his second stop, but the team failed to do so when he unexpectedly entered the pits.

He came into the pits again when the field was instructed to do so on lap 60 after Lance Stroll crashed at the final corner. Communications between Russell and his team became confused at that stage.

Prior to the Safety Car period, race engineer Marcus Dudley had told Russell he was in his “Safety Car window,” indicating a pit stop would be expected if the Safety Car was deployed. When the Safety Car was deployed, Mercedes then instructed him to stay out, and Russell passed the pit lane entrance on lap 59.

On the following lap Dudley reminded Russell not to pit, but by then all cars were being directed to pass through the pit lane. Expecting to be told to pit, Russell slowed into the Mercedes garage where his team mate’s car was being serviced.

Russell arrived slowly at the pit box because his team mate’s car was present. When the Mercedes crew changed his tyres they did not wait the customary pause teams usually observe to account for penalties.

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Lap: 59/78 RUS: 1’27.497
Dudley	Got a yellow flag, final corner, Stroll in the wall.
Russell	Window?
Dudley	We are in the Safety Car window. So staying out, staying out. Safety Car, Safety Car.
Russell	Confirm it’s staying out. We’ve got a little bit of graining, nothing crazy.
Dudley	Stay out, stay out.
Russell	I mean they’re very… The circuit is pretty dangerous.
Lap: 60/78 RUS: 2’17.686
Dudley	So Safety Car exit of turn one.
Russell	The track’s cleaning up.
Dudley	So stay on your delta. Safety Car now at turn three. And we are monitoring the situation.
Dudley	Green 12 position three.
Dudley	Staying out. Staying out. The Safety Car ahead goes into the pits, Russell follows it
Russell	Both talk over each other We have to go into the pit lane, get tyres.
Dudley	Safety Car in the pit lane, Safety Car in the pit lane.
Russell	Russell approaches the pit box slowly Get tyres ready to swap. What am I doing? The crew change his tyres but do not observe the five-second time penalty

Russell was immediately worried he had not properly served the penalty. When he pressed the team for clarity, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff intervened to defer the discussion, similar to an earlier incident in Canada.

Lap: 61/78 RUS: 1’51.805
Dudley	And watch the line on the exit
Russell	Russell has fallen behind Hadjar again Hadjar on… Hadjar boxed?
Dudley	Affirm.
Dudley	Safety Car will take the start-finish straight
Russell	Was I meant to be boxing then? For tyres or not?
Dudley	Er, negative, we’ll discuss that later though.
Lap: 62/78 RUS: 2’00.418
Dudley	They’re just waiting for the Safety Car to let cars through.
Dudley	And have I served my penalty or not?
Dudley	We’ll just follow the Safety Car for now.
Wolff	George, let’s talk about it after.
Russell	Yeah, I just need to know if I’m getting a five-second penalty and I’m stuck behind Hadjar on hard tyres.
Dudley	George, George, I’ll give you the messages as the messages come through, okay?
Russell	Yeah, alright, mate.

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The race briefly restarted before another Safety Car after Charles Leclerc crashed at Anthony Noghes. Russell saw a chance to serve his penalty: the cars directly behind him were lapped, and the next rival for position, Pierre Gasly, was more than 10 seconds back.

With the field due to pass through the pits again, Russell suggested stopping to serve the five-second penalty, which would not have cost him track positions. Regulations permit pitting while the field passes through the pits under a Safety Car.

Dudley responded that Mercedes believed the earlier delay during his pit stop meant the five seconds had already been served:

Lap: 65/78 RUS: 1’21.793
Dudley	The race restarts Kimi has gone.
Lap: 66/78 RUS: 1’55.061
Dudley	Leclerc off final corner. Safety Car, Safety Car.
Russell	If we’re coming through the pit lane, consider if I’ve got the gap to do the stop-and-go. The five seconds.
Dudley	So we were stationary for over five seconds, George, so we’ll wait for the update on race control.
Russell	Just ask if Kimi just keeps the pace up on the delta, I’ve got the gap behind me to do it.
Dudley	We will be passing through the pit lane.
Russell	Do you copy what I say here, mate?
Dudley	I do, I do. I copy.
Russell	Yeah, we’ve got 14 seconds behind, so we can just do it in case we need to.

Mercedes therefore instructed Russell not to stop in his pit box:

Dudley	So we’ll just pass straight through the pit lane here, George, we will not stop.
Dudley	Russell follows the pack into the pits Green 12 position 4, nice and slow through the pit lane. Limiter on, lots of cars getting penalties for speeding in the pit lane.

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The stewards disagreed with Mercedes’ assessment that the penalty had been served. No decision document appears to have been published explaining their reasoning in this case. By contrast, when Yuki Tsunoda failed to serve a 10-second penalty at the Brazilian Grand Prix last year, the stewards published a document and gave him an additional 10 seconds after a mechanic had loosened a wheel nut prematurely.

Guidance from the F1 stewards on “failure to comply with in-race penalty procedure” lists possible sanctions ranging from five- or 10-second time penalties to drive-through or stop-and-go penalties, noting that mitigating or aggravating circumstances will be considered.

In Russell’s situation the stewards clearly concluded the penalty had not been served. It is uncertain whether the stop Russell suggested would have changed the outcome, but his assessment of the situation appeared more accurate than the team’s.

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• “Undershoot!”: Alpine repeatedly warned Gasly not to break speed limit again
• Mercedes overruled Russell when he urged them to serve five-second penalty
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