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helmut marko did not understand tactics of george russell and mercedes

Marko understands little of Mercedes' strategy: 'Then he would have driven at the front'

27 May at 08:13
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  • Corwin Kunst

Helmut Marko - like Max Verstappen and no doubt a host of other drivers - did not experience an entertaining Sunday in Monaco. The Red Bull Racing advisor saw a "boring" race and does not understand why George Russell did not choose to stay closer to the front in the opening stages.

After the red flag on the first lap, the four drivers at the front switched from mediums to hard tyres, on which they then finished the race. Russell, Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton did the opposite. However, Russell was extremely careful on the tyre with the yellow cheek, as he knew: I have to be careful with the rubber to be able to finish with it. According to Marko, the Mercedes driver drove unnecessarily slow and should not have given predecessor Norris such a big lead.

Mercedes strategy not understood

"You could see that some were driving four seconds slower than was possible," Marko told German Sky. "So I didn't quite understand Russell's tactics, because if he hadn't given up so much ground at the start, he could have been at the front."

Marko's reading is shared by former Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher, who also understood very little of it: "That was a bit amazing. He still had pace at the end. He was able to put down laps of 1:15 with the tyre. So all of a sudden he was five seconds faster, as if out of nowhere, when we already had about 75 laps on it. I don't know what Mercedes wanted there." Timo Glock also thinks Mercedes was wrong about the longevity of the mediums.

This article was written in collaboration with Sophia Crothall.