Russell wanted red flag: Mercedes understand why race control didn't go red

It must have been some terrible seconds for Russell. The Briton had just crashed and was lying in his car in the middle of the track. He was also lying so far that he could not see the oncoming drivers. Russell called over the team radio for a red flag, but race control did not respond with one.

"Everyone who was watching the race will have heard George's frantic radio calls calling for a red flag. What George was feeling was incredibly vulnerable. He knew he was in the middle of the track. He knew he was in a very fast part of the track with corners that may have unsighted anyone approaching him and he was sort of positioned in such a way as he couldn't see any of the oncoming stuff, but he knew there were hurtling cars headed his way," Allison begins in the Mercedes Debrief video.

Russell's justified panic

"An incredibly vulnerable position to be in and that was the distress you heard from him, that vulnerability. What he couldn't know was how swiftly race control reacted to it, how swiftly the yellow flags came out, how quickly it went to a virtual safety car and actually I think a very good response from the whole marshalling system to make sure that he was protected in what was a very vulnerable position. He could not know that. All he knew was he was sat there horribly exposed and wanted to let people know that in no uncertain terms."

Despite the shock of that moment, Allison does not fear that Russell will not get back in a car. "acing car drivers are racing car drivers, they are nothing if not brilliant at putting past and scary things in the past behind them and pushing on. He was completely back to his normal self within minutes of that happening. In the race debrief afterwards, you would not have known what had just happened. He was in the factory on Monday working on the simulator. It was an ugly few seconds but not something that will be keeping him awake at night," Mercedes' technical director concluded.