'I don't think so': George Russell was not on a winning strategy at 2023 F1 Australian GP

F1 pundit Mark Hughes doesn't think that George Russell's strategy to pit during the safety car would have given him a chance to win the 2023 F1 Australian GP. The Briton was leading the race but immediately made a pit stop when the full safety car was deployed after Alex Albon's crash. However, race control soon red-flagged the race, ruining Russell's strategy.

Speaking on The Race F1 podcast, Hughes stated that George Russell's strategy was brilliant if there was no red flag. If everything went as planned, the young Briton could have potentially beaten his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, in the race. Unfortunately, that didn't happen as the strategy was ruined and his car eventually broke down after the restart. Speaking about Russell's plans, the F1 pundit said:

"He was on a very good strategy, one of the best strategies that he could have been given in that situation, given that there was a safety car had happened but the red flag had not yet happened. It bought him a lot of time, 10 seconds off Verstappen and Hamilton, and that you would assume he ensured he would have beaten Hamilton if he did not have his engine blow up. It was not really his day."

Furthermore, Mark Hughes explained how, despite having a great pitstop strategy, it wasn't enough to win the race, especially against Max Verstappen. He believes that the Dutchman could have easily overtaken George Russell despite being 10 seconds behind him. Considering that the raw performance of Red Bull's car is still miles ahead of Mercedes, he said:

"Whether they would have been on a winning strategy, I don't think so, because I think even if he gained 10 seconds on Verstappen on that one pitstop, I think Verstappen easily had the pace to make that up and still pass and probably win by a comfortable margin. So, no, I think on raw performance it would have been the best strategy, but on raw performance, it still would not have been enough."

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George Russell speaks against the first red flag in the 2023 F1 Australian GP

Mercedes' George Russell employed a brilliant strategy under the first safety car in the 2023 F1 Australian GP. He pitted to get a new set of hard tires that would comfortably set him up to stay in front of the pack until the very end. Unfortunately, for him, the race control officials decided to red-flag the race, which completely ruined his momentum at that moment.

As a result, the Mercedes driver wasn't happy with the red flag decision and argued that the situation wasn't severe enough for it:

"I thought the red flag was totally unnecessary. There was obviously quite a bit of gravel on the track, but there was a clear racing line. We've seen it far worse in the past. It's sort of reminiscent of the decision of last week in Saudi to bring out the safety car when the car was totally off the track. So, I don't really know what's going on with some of the decisions at the moment. We're all trying to work together with the FIA to improve things, but it's seemingly a bit of a challenge."

Eventually, George Russell's race came to an end when his power unit blew up and began spewing flames from the back of his car on lap 19.