Mercedes tech chief James Allison acknowledged that it was a cruel call from the Mercedes pitwall ordering Russian Grand Prix race leader Valtteri Bottas to pull aside and allow title contending teammate Lewis Hamilton past to claim an undeserved and orchestrated victory.
It might have been another top-notch team effort, yet another superb one-two but instead celebrations were muted, drivers bewildered, fans feeling cheated, but despite all this the reality is that team orders have been part of Formula 1 since the championship began in 1950.
After the race on Sunday, Allison - who shared the Sochi podium with the two Mercedes drivers and Sebastian Vettel - provided insight into the decision on the day, “The pace of the Ferrari put us under pressure all the way through the first stint, and we rather fumbled things as a consequence, allowing us to lose the pace to Sebastian [Vettel] at the first stop.”
“Lewis spared our blushes and put things back on an even keel for us, but a little later in the race we got into a degree of difficulty once again when Lewis followed Valtteri quite closely from behind, damaging his rear tyres.”
“With Valtteri in front and on rubber that was working well, we took the very difficult decision to allow Lewis to go in front and have a car with good rubber protecting the one-two that would come our way if we would just look after the tyres to the finish.”
“And that’s what happened in the end, but it was a desperately difficult day for Valtteri. He took his disappointment like a Trojan, but I could see standing next to him on the podium that it was hurting him,” admitted Allison.
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