Why Mercedes was issued shock double grid drop for Bahrain GP

The F1 stewards have explained why George Russell and Kimi Antonelli were penalised after qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The duo were called to see the stewards after they were sent out to the pit lane before race control had issued a restart time following the deployment of a red flag.

Team principal Toto Wolff declared hope his drivers would not be on the receiving end of any punishment as he asserted no wrongdoing was carried out by Russell or Antonelli. 

A second and fourth place result was enjoyed by Russell and Antonelli respectively - however both have been demoted back one place on the starting grid.

The F1 stewards revealed Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin misread the communication sent to the teams.

“The team representative, Mr Shovlin, in evidence stated that he gave the instruction for the cars to be released, in error, having misinterpreted the message posted on page 3 of the Timing Screen, “estimated re-start time” to be a message advising the actual re-start time,” read a statement from the stewards. 

“He argued that there was no sporting advantage gained in this case as there was sufficient time remaining (11 minutes) for other teams to perform their run plans. 

“It was also noted that the team’s sporting director, Mr [Ron] Meadows, was not present at the event and that normally he would be involved in the release process.”

While Mercedes argued it did not present the team with a sporting advantage, the stewards did not quite see it that way.

“The FIA single seater sporting director stated that such a move could be a sporting advantage in that it could enable a team to perform its run plan whereas other teams may not be able to,” the statement continued.

“The stewards agree with this view particularly where there are only a few minutes remaining in the session. The FIA sporting director argued that there needed to be a sporting penalty rather than a team fine, otherwise in future teams would release their cars as soon as the estimated re-start time was published. 

“The stewards agree with this view. Mr Shovlin argued that it was possible to give a non sporting penalty if the stewards declared that it was not to be taken as a precedent but also stated that if a sporting penalty was to be given, it should be mitigated. 

“The stewards agreed with the view that this breach required a sporting penalty however accept that the breach was unintentional and a genuine mistake by the team for which Mr Shovlin apologised. We decide to impose a one position grid penalty.

In a final warning, the stewards declared: “A similar breach in different circumstances, could entail a more severe sporting penalty, in future.”