Mercedes Team Principal Calls Russell's Investigation 'Crazy' And 'Ridiculous'

Sunday, 07 April 2024 at 14:00

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The Mercedes team principal shared his opinion on the FIA's investigation into the incident between George Russell and Oscar Piastri a few laps before the end of the race.

Both Mercedes cars struggled in the first stint on the hard compound tires, which meant both Lewis Hamilton and his teammate George Russell lost a lot of ground to their competitors.

However, as the race progressed and the German team stopped for the second set of hard compound tires, their pace drastically improved.

Being suddenly faster, Russell caught up with Fernando Alonso in P5 and Oscar Piastri in P6 before the end of the race.

Mercedes driver closed down on McLaren and set up a beautiful move into the last corner as he played a "dummy" on the Australian driver.

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He first went left, looking like he would not go for a dive down the inside, and waited for Piastri to move with him. He then switched right before jumping late on the brakes.

Formula 1

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LAP 50/53 ... but it's not going to be easy! 😱 Russell dives to the inside of Piastri at the chicane, they take avoiding action and then the McLaren defends hard into T1 🍿 #F1 #JapaneseGP

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This would have been the move of the race if it hadn't been for the curb at which Russell's Mercedes bounced. Although he did leave enough space for the Australian, they made a slight contact.

The McLaren driver tried to avoid contact as, for one second, it looked like it would be a bigger collision, and he cut the corner as a result.

Stewards noted this incident and summoned both drivers after the end of the race to investigate Russell for dangerous driving.

Although the investigation concluded this was a racing incident and no further action would be taken, Toto Wolff was disenchanted by the fact that there was an investigation to begin with. He told Sky Sports Deutschland:

"It's completely ridiculous to investigate this. I usually don't agree 100 per cent or not, but at the end of the day there was no contact and no gain in terms of position. So it's crazy."