Mercedes’s approach has been closely examined.
After the contentious Belgian Grand Prix, Mercedes was allegedly in bad radio contact with Lewis Hamilton, according to former F1 Chief Peter Windsor.
At Spa, George Russell won the flag, but the FIA later disqualified him from the race because his car didn’t weigh the required amount, hence Hamilton won the race.
Russell initially won the race thanks to an incredible tire strategy in which he used one set of tires from lap 11 until the finish, while the other top runners made two pit stops.
Russell was much slower than the pursuing pack due to the age difference in his tires, but he skillfully held off Hamilton in the closing circuits to take first position.
Despite having a tire advantage, Hamilton was unable to pass Russell; nevertheless, ex-F1 Chief Windsor believes this was due to a specific radio transmission that Hamilton received as he approached his teammate.
“I thought it was quite interesting with two or three laps to go, and they said ‘just give each other a lot of space’ to Lewis, I think they should have been giving that message to George actually,” Windsor stated on his channel on YouTube.
“They gave it to Lewis and I wonder if that changed things a little bit, that’s unnecessary to say that to Lewis Hamilton I think because he’s not the sort of driver that ever really does anything incredibly stupid, particularly with a team-mate.”
Windsor seems to be forgetting the previous season’s Qatar Grand Prix, when Hamilton eliminated both him and Russell in the first turn.
Thus, it makes likely that Hamilton got the message instead of Russell, especially because the 39-year-old was the one initiating the attack.
Oscar Piastri, who was chasing the two Mercedes cars, posed the biggest threat to Mercedes in the final stages. However, the McLaren was too far behind to challenge for first place unless there was a fight amongst the lead drivers.
Russell’s DSQ ensured Hamilton finished with maximum points despite all the controversy, and Mercedes can go into the summer break with the knowledge that they were the team to beat in Belgium on two different strategies.