David Croft believes George Russell has every reason to feel bruised by Mercedes’ strategy call at Monza – and he didn’t sugar-coat it.
Russell had done the hard yards. After the early red flag, he was committed to a long run on the hard tyres, controlling the Italian Grand Prix from the front and making that one-stop gamble look like a race-winning plan. He was the car on the road, the benchmark, the one everyone else had to beat.
Then came the late virtual safety car. And with it, the moment the race slipped away.
Mercedes rolled the dice – but only with one car. They pitted Kimi Antonelli for medium tyres to cover the looming threat of Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. Russell, still leading and still on hards, was told to stay out.
The outcome was brutal. Armed with fresher, softer rubber and a clear pace advantage, Antonelli hunted down his team-mate, closed the gap, and swept past with three laps to go. From 19th on the grid to a first home win at Monza – a fairytale for the Italian. For Russell, just the sting of second place.
Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Show, Croft argued that Mercedes had neglected the golden rule: protect the car in the lead.
“He should feel aggrieved. The strategy was to go to the end. He made it to the end. His pace was OK,” Croft said. “But the minute Mercedes are thinking, ‘Well, we should bring in Kimi to cover off Max,’ they should also be thinking, ‘We’ll bring in George as well.’”
The logic was clear to him. Under a virtual safety car, the pit lane offers a “cheap” stop. Double-stacking might have cost Antonelli a couple of seconds, but it would have put both Mercedes drivers on similar strategies, both on fresh tyres, both able to fight on equal terms.
“I know Kimi might have lost out by a couple of seconds with that double stack, but you’ve got a cheap pitstop. You’ve got an opportunity there,” Croft continued. “George says it came at the wrong time; the medium tyre runners would have struggled towards the end. But a bit of safety first on this one, and give your lead driver, who’s out there and is doing a fine job, the opportunity to compete on equal terms if you’ve got equality within the team, which they have.”
Russell’s frustration was obvious in the immediate aftermath. He admitted he was “a little surprised” to see Antonelli peel into the pits under the VSC. He hadn’t expected anyone to stop. Perhaps, Croft suggested, he should have. But that responsibility, in his view, lay on the pit wall.
“I would feel a bit aggrieved if I was George,” Croft said. “I don’t think he thought anyone was going to come in. Maybe he should have done, but if they thought Kimi needed a change of tyres, they should have done the same with George.”
Antonelli’s charge to a home victory will dominate the headlines, and rightly so. Yet in the shadows of the podium celebration, one uncomfortable question lingers for Mercedes: in trying to cover Verstappen, did they cost the man who led their race from the front his best shot at winning it?
