The 2022 Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix was quite a roller coaster for the Mercedes team and, in particular, for George Russell, who took the top positions during free practice on Friday, leading one of the sessions, but who failed to get through to Q3 on Saturday.
The young British driver fell 45 thousandths behind Pierre Gasly in the second round of qualifying, meaning he had to start from 12th place on the new and much-criticized American circuit.
When the lights went out at the start, Russell dropped five positions, forcing him to climb even further to continue his run of finishing in the top five in every race.
Said and done for those who want to get the stripes of the Silver Arrows after beating the seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton, in four of the five grand prix contested to date.
With great courage he overcame all the rivals he found on the track, without risking too much, but without being shy in overtaking actions, planting himself on lap 40 in seventh position with the same set of hard tyres. The accident between Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris caused the safety car to come out, something he took advantage of to set up a new set of media and go all out against Valtteri Bottas and his Mercedes teammate.
The last ten laps featured an all-out duel between these three drivers, in which a lost Hamilton could be seen on the radio as he did not know the race situation, while the team left “their choice” to stop or No.
On the side of Russell’s garage it was proven that, despite his youth, he is someone prepared and experienced, since he would not have been in the fight for fifth place if it were not for the suggestion he made to his team.
“I would say stay out. I would only [go in] in case a safety car comes out,” the Englishman told his engineer over the radio when asked whether to make a stop or not. “Let’s see if there is a Safety Car.”
The 24-year-old was called to the pits for his tire change when he was running fifth, but decided to stay on the track in case a safety car showed up and not lose time, as it did.
“You sound like a genius when things like that happen, but it’s something when you’re in a strategy like that, I think we were lucky,” he said after the race in Miami. “We had the seventh position covered, there was no point in going into the pits, the best thing was to stay out and wait for something like that, we had a bit of luck,” said the Mercedes driver.
