Mercedes have outlined how they will try to prevent a repeat of the conflict between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg with their current F1 driver pairing.
dramatically collided while battling for position on the opening lap of Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix, leaving the seven-time world champion stricken in the gravel.
Russell recovered to salvage fourth place while Hamilton accepted responsibility for the incident as the two drivers left Qatar on good terms.“In the strategy meeting we discussed the likely offset between the two drivers and how that would be handled. Obviously, what happened was not part of the plan, but certainly not intentional from either side,” Mercedes’ communications director Bradley Lord said.
“To be one car in the gravel, one in the pit lane and then plumb last at the end of Lap 1, is about as badly a first lap can go. But how we deal with it, we’ll talk about it behind closed doors. I think both drivers have been very magnanimous afterwards and we’ll talk about it and then put it behind them.
The incident had echoes of Hamilton and Rosberg’s infamous first-lap crash at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, although both Silver Arrows were forced to retire on that occasion.Lord, who was standing in for Mercedes boss Toto Wolff as the Austrian continues his rehabilitation from a recent operation on his knee, revealed the team have a “racing intent, a sort of shared document” to avoid such clashes when racing wheel-to-wheel.
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