FIA delivers verdict after George Russell’s DRS issue scrutinised

George Russell faced a penalty after opening the DRS on his Mercedes W16 outside of the DRS zone during the Bahrain Grand Prix. However, after a meeting with the stewards, the FIA confirmed that no penalty would be applied.

The FIA stewards initially noted the infringement and investigated the incident after the race. 

On lap 45, Russell was told by his Mercedes race engineer, Marcus Dudley, that a DRS issue had developed on the W16 and he could now only open it when told by the team. 

Russell’s car also suffered from transponder issues, which may have affected the DRS of Lando Norris behind him, with it assumed that the McLaren was unable to detect the Mercedes in front of it.

The British driver crossed the line in second position behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. However, with Lando Norris just 0.774 seconds behind him, a time or grid penalty would have seen him lose this place.

Norris fought hard with Russell in the latter stages of the race, but was unable to get the move done before the chequered flag. Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle commented: “Lando’s race craft tonight has not been his finest. It will just not fall for him.”

Following the race, Russell confirmed there was a brake-by-wire failure on his car contributing to the issues.

He added: “We were having all sorts of failures, one lap I clicked the radio button and the DRS opened. I hit close and backed off, so didn’t gain any advantage.”

Russell also claimed that a penalty would be “exceptionally harsh.” He argued to Sky Sports F1:

“There was technical problems. I backed off. It was probably open for less than a second, so…

“I don’t know how it got triggered There were all sorts of problems going on with the transponder and the signal to the car.

“I honestly can’t give you an answer because I was losing everything on my steering wheel as well, I had no data. I lost all of that, so I was really compromised in that last stint.

“I don’t know, it would be exceptionally harsh if something happened.”

The FIA has now released the following statement:

“The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 63 (George Russell), team representatives and Mr Pearson and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, telemetry and team radio evidence.

“The connection between the automated DRS activation system and the car failed due to issues with a timing loop provided by an external party. Therefore the FIA authorised manual activation of the DRS in accordance with Article 22.1 h. At the time the driver was experiencing a brake-by-wire issue and other electronic issues. 

“He was at the time advised to use an auxiliary button in the cockpit which serves as a back up radio button but also serves as a manual DRS activation button. 

“On the straight between turns 10 and 11 he tried to radio the team using this button but instead accidentally activated the DRS. The DRS was activated for a distance of 37 metres on a straight of approximately 700 metres. Whilst he gained 0.02 seconds, he gave up 0.28 seconds at the next corner to compensate. This was confirmed by telemetry. Accordingly whilst technically a breach occurred the Stewards decide that as there was no sporting advantage gained, no penalty is imposed.”

Photos from Bahrain GP – Race