The Mercedes drivers had high hopes for the first race of the season in Bahrain after a strong first day of practice.
But they finished the first race of the season in fifth and seventh after grappling with overheating problems throughout the race. Their problems multiplied as backing off to cool their power units made it harder to keep their tyres in the correct temperature window.
The problem became so bad that in the final laps George Russell refused to follow one instruction to lift and coast, accepting the loss of performance which came with it.
On top of that he and Lewis Hamilton had to cope with occasional radio problems which interrupted the flow of information from the pit wall telling them which settings to change in order to get their power unit temperatures under control.
Their radio exchanges shed more light on the problems the W15 drivers had to cope with and how much it affected their performance.
Hamilton and Russell’s Bahrain GP radio message highlights
The first indication Russell had a problem with his power unit came three laps into the race, when his engineer Marcus Dudley told him to make an urgent settings change. The team warned him he would start to lose electrical power on the straights due to de-rating.
| Lap: 3/57 RUS: 1’36.406 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dudley | Green three, position four – urgent. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dudley | Expecting a few more de-rates now with that change. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dudley | And nice job on the overtake. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dudley | So introduce management turn 12. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 4/57 RUS: 1’37.738 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dudley | And George, we will need third gear turn 12… | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Russell | Does Leclerc have DRS? Affirm. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dudley | Affirm he has DRS. Sorry, turn one, two – third gear. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dudley | So let’s just settle now into this tyre management. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 5/57 RUS: 1’38.116 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dudley | Leclerc does not have DRS. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Russell | De-rates now coming down the straight. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The problem struck Russell soon after he passed Charles Leclerc for second place, and he soon found himself under pressure from his pursuers:
| Lap: 6/57 RUS: 1’37.784 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dudley | So Leclerc does have DRS. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 7/57 RUS: 1’38.082 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dudley | George it’s turn 12 we need to be introducing more. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Russell | Does Leclerc have DRS or not? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dudley | Just hovering right on the edge. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Russell | Just focus on the important stuff, mate. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dudley | Perez now car behind, 1.2. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dudley | And we’ll have a green three switch change over the line. Perez 1.4. So Perez does not have DRS. We’ll have green three, position three. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Meanwhile Hamilton’s race engineer Peter…
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