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Mercedes star George Russell just managed to finish inside the points at the 2025 British GP after starting the race inside the Top 5. It was all down to the strategy gamble taken by Mercedes at Silverstone, which didn't pay off, and the British driver came out and reflected on the same after the race.
It had drizzled before the formation lap at Silverstone, as all the drivers started the race on intermediate tires. However, by then, the track had mostly dried out, with only the last sector being damp. As a result, Russell, along with Charles Leclerc, pitted after the formation lap for a set of slick tires and started the race from the pit lane.
As the race started, the intermediate drivers were faster, and the slick runners fell behind by multiple seconds. The track started drying out eventually, but Russell and Leclerc couldn't take advantage as virtual safety cars came out for the drivers who crashed, giving a cheap pitstop to some drivers who pitted ahead of the Mercedes driver.
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The VSC also helped the intermediate tire drivers cool down the tires as laps ticked down until the rain arrived once again. Lance Stroll was one of these drivers, who pitted after over 10 laps (the accurate transition period for dry tires), came out ahead of George Russell, and got up into the Top 10 as the driver on intermediate tires started to struggle.
However, the rain arrived again around Lap 18 with everyone pitting for a new set of intermediate tires. George Russell's strategy to go bold and pit for the slick tires after the formation lap didn't pay off, and he came out after the race to reflect on the Mercedes strategy. He said, via Sky F1:
“I think it was a 50/50 call. At the beginning there was 25 minutes of no rain, but we spent 15 minutes behind the virtual safety car. As soon as we got going at the end, we were five seconds a lap quicker than the inter runners. But then the rain came. In hindsight, of course, it's easy to say we probably risked too much, and then, the last pit stop, I probably went too early.
"I risked too much, but I wasn't expecting the hard tire. Just a terrible day, hurts me a lot, to be honest, to have a day like that here at my home grand prix. If we played it conservatively, we probably would have been, P3, P4, P5, it's better than where we ended up, but that wasn't what we were going for,” added George Russell.
George Russell's final pitstop call out the final nail in the coffin for the Mercedes driver
After the rain stopped at Silverstone, the track started drying out quickly, and Fernando Alonso was the first driver to blink and pit for slick tires to the end. Around the same time, George Russell also inquired to his team about the switch to slicks, as his race engineer called it “suicidal.”
Nonetheless, on the very next lap, Russell insisted on pitting for dry tires while running just outside the Top 5. The team confirmed and went for the bold strategy, and put the British driver on hard tires. It was again a little too early as both Alonso and Russell fell back.
The other driver pitted a few laps later as Russell started pumping in the fastest sectors. The Mercedes driver was able to finish in P10 despite all the wrong strategic calls and safety cars.
