Russell’s true Dutch GP performance loss amid hidden consequence of Leclerc clash

George Russell suffered a “substantial” performance loss – to the tune of three quarters of a second per lap – after colliding with the Ferrari driven by Charles Leclerc at the Dutch Grand Prix.

However, Mercedes has since revealed that this was not the only consequence which Russell faced. In addition, the damage sustained “changed the handling characteristics” of Russell’s Mercedes W16, meaning he was responding on the fly in-race to its behaviour.

Two-part struggles for George Russell at Dutch GP

Leclerc re-took fifth on the track from Russell on lap 33, a move that played out throughs turns 10-12 and which left both drivers unhappy. The pair made contact, with Russell complaining that Leclerc had overtaken him off the track at T12. Leclerc said Russell did not leave him the appropriate racing room.

For Russell, he was also left with a damaged Mercedes W16. The stewards – following a post-race investigation – decided to take no further action.

As it turns out, as well as the loss of lap time, Russell’s pain also extended to the post-clash handling of his car.

“It was pretty substantial damage,” confirmed Mercedes’ team representative Bradley Lord in their post-Dutch GP debrief.

“You could see it on TV and on the replays, bits of the floor falling off, the sort of floor edge, which is super important, not just for the downforce, actually for the handling characteristic as well.

“So George lost enough performance to cost him anywhere up to three quarters of a second a lap.

“So it was substantial, but also it changed the handling characteristics of the car as well. So he was having to cope with the loss of performance and being effectively down on lap time, but then also adjusting and adapting to a car that was starting to behave in a pretty unpleasant way at points.

“So yeah, fighting with one hand tied behind his back, and in the end did a brilliant job to get it to P4 and score the points that we did.”

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Mercedes later asked Russell to yield to team-mate Kimi Antonelli, who set off after Leclerc following Russell’s immediate obligation.

The end result was contact once more. This time, Leclerc was punted into retirement after a lunge down the inside from Antonelli at the Hugenholtz corner (Turn 3).

Asked to confirm if that team order was due to the damage Russell was carrying, Lord replied: “Yeah, it was exactly that.

“George, we knew he was down on performance, we knew Kimi had a healthy car.

“He had actually run over some debris as well from that same collision, but he had the pace, and we therefore asked the drivers to invert, which is a normal team instruction that we will deploy from time to time if we think it can help the team overall score more points.

“And Kimi was then able to stretch his legs, start closing down Leclerc in front and start pressuring the Ferrari, which brought some other strategic options into play.”

Russell was the only driver across Mercedes and Ferrari to score points at Zandvoort. Ferrari suffered a double-DNF with Lewis Hamilton having crashed out at the Hugenholtz corner. Antonelli was ultimately classified sixteenth.

Russell’s fourth place allowed Mercedes to trim the deficit to Ferrari and P2 in the Constructors’ Championship. Just 12 points now separate the teams with nine rounds to go.

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