An unrepentant George Russell “didn’t really care” about his drivethrough penalty for passing Alex Albon’s Williams by cutting the chicane in Formula 1’s contentious 2025 Monaco Grand Prix.
The mandated two-stop strategy format deployed for the race in an attempt to improve the spectacle led to teams using one car to back up the pack so that the other could make a pitstop without losing positions.
Racing Bulls was first to employ the tactic as Liam Lawson held back cars that Isack Hadjar would otherwise have fallen behind in his pitstops, and then Williams took it further still as Albon and Carlos Sainz alternated in using the tactic and then swapping positions to allow the other a pit gap.
Held up in the queue behind the Williams, Russell got ahead of Albon by going over the harbourfront chicane run-off and then decided to accept a penalty and just try to pull enough of a gap to minimise its impact.
He was given a drivethrough but still finished 11th, while the two Williams were ninth and 10th.
Asked if he’d expected a smaller penalty, Russell admitted he had but had no regrets.
“I was a little bit surprised [at the size of penalty], but to be honest I didn’t really care,” he said.
“Because I was out of the points. I didn’t get the chance yesterday to enjoy Monaco, and I just said ‘screw it, I want to enjoy Monaco, I want to enjoy driving this track full gas, it’s one of the best circuits in the world’. And that’s what I did.
“The last 25 laps were the most fun I’ve had all weekend. Pretty exhilarating. I was really pushing the limits, testing myself. And ironically if I didn’t do this, I’d have finished maybe 15th or 16th.”
Williams pair understand Russell’s ‘cheeky’ tactic
Albon jokingly described Russell as “cheeky” and said he had no problem with what he’d tried.
“When you’re in the car with him on the road, he does some cheeky moves. He did it on the racetrack as well today,” said Albon.
“I knew exactly what he was doing and...it was a bit too obvious, to get away with. But I applaud the effort.
“He had to do something to get points. And he did make us worry for a couple of laps before the drivethrough came through.”
Asked by The Race for his view of Russell’s move on Albon, Sainz was similarly understanding.
“I completely understand why he did it, because I nearly did it on Alex and Lawson in front in the first part of the race,” Sainz replied.
“I think ultimately the sport should look at a way where manipulating the race outcome with the pace shouldn’t be allowed when it’s as obvious as it was today.”
Albon said he’d been similarly understanding towards Lawson for his efforts to delay the Williams early on, and had just tried to ensure his slow pace wasn’t dangerous for anyone else.
“It’s not pretty,” said Albon. “I tried not to do it in the high-speed corners because that’s dangerous, but at the same time doing it in the low speed can also be a bit touch and go.
“Like I said, I don’t like doing this, and I don’t want to be racing like that. Carlos I’m sure agrees, and I’m sure Liam as well, It’s just it’s what it’s got to, so we need to figure out how to stop that.”
Russell admitted Mercedes - which was starting only 14th and 15th after his Q2 electrical problem and team-mate Kimi Antonelli’s Q1 crash - intended to use similar tactics before Racing Bulls and Williams got there first.
“We had planned, Kimi and I, to basically do the same strategy as what VCARB and Williams implemented with the two drivers,” he said.
“But ultimately qualifying 14th and 15th, there is nothing you can do [with pitstop timing]. You do it on lap one, you’d have finished nowhere. You go long, we finished nowhere.
“Ironically, I finished in a higher position by doing my manoeuvre with Alex than if I hadn’t. That in itself proves the system’s pretty flawed.”
Russell’s radical solutions
Russell said Mercedes’ analysis suggested a Formula 2 car would be able to hold off an F1 car around Monaco now.
“Driving four seconds off the pace here is dead easy, Our strategist said anything less than three seconds pace advantage is a zero percent chance of an overtake. You need 4.5 seconds for a 50% chance of an overtake,” he explained.
“So you could effectively put an F2 car out there and they’ve got a chance of holding up an F1 car."
He is sure Mercedes could have got both cars into the points had it managed to deploy team tactics before rivals did, and said it proved the mandatory two-stop plan for Monaco couldn’t work “because it was too easy for teams to work together to create the pitstop gap”.
While making clear he didn’t have any firm ideas for solutions, he speculated that the only option might be something truly radical.
“I don’t know what the solution is. We were lucky in ‘22 and ‘23 that the wet races offered some excitement. Do they need to wet the track?” he mused.
He also pondered removing the racing element of the Monaco GP altogether.
“For all of the drivers, qualifying’s the most exhilarating moment of the weekend. Do we accept that there should be no race and it's a qualifying race?” Russell wondered.
“One on Saturday, one on Sunday, and the guy who qualifies on pole gets some points and gets a little trophy and the one on Sunday gets some more points.
“Because that’s [qualifying] what we love most and I think that’s what you guys enjoy watching the most.
“And 99% of the other people in Monaco are here sipping champagne on a yacht so they don’t really care.”
