Desperate George Russell decision made by Mercedes amid threat of fresh F1 penalty.

George Russell did not finish the Brazilian Grand Prix as Mercedes took no risks with his car on the verge of a possible engine failure which could have had consequences

Mercedes’ choice to retire George Russell’s car at Interlagos may spare him from a fine for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Throughout the Brazilian Grand Prix, the British driver maintained a point lead, but his gap kept growing as Mercedes struggled to find enough speed. The decision to retire his car was made not long before the race was over.

That call put Russell out of his misery but that was not the reason behind it. A Mercedes spokesperson confirmed the retirement was sparked but “high and worsening power unit oil temperatures” which put the engine at risk of “imminent failure”.

A similar result might have put Russell in a vulnerable position the next time around in Vegas. As he has already utilized all four of the internal combustion engines that each driver is permitted to use this season, a new engine would automatically result in a grid penalty.

In that sense, Russell is not the only one balancing on a thin line. Twenty drivers have used all four of their allowed internal combustion engines (ICEs) for the 2023 season with two races remaining, while 25% of the grid has exceeded the allowance.

By retiring Russell, Mercedes gave themselves the best chance of salvaging that power unit in case it is needed across the final two rounds. But that was of no consolation to team principal Toto Wolff, who wore his heart on his sleeve as he spoke at the end of a torrid weekend for Mercedes.

“An inexcusable performance,” he said of the Grand Prix. “There are no words for that. That car finished second last week and the week before and whatever we did to it was horrible.

“Lewis survived out there but George… I can only feel for the two driving such a miserable thing. So it shows how difficult the car is, it’s on a knife’s edge. We’ve got to develop it better for next year because it can’t be that in seven days of finishing on the podium with a solid, quick car, you’re nowhere.

“We’re clearly not world champions on Sprint race weekends. We did some good work here at the track to get it done, but it still doesn’t explain what went wrong. The car drove like it was on three wheels and not four… This car doesn’t deserve a win. We need to push through the last two races, recover – I think that’s the most important thing – and see what we can do in Las Vegas, a different track, and Abu Dhabi.

“However, today’s performance was… I have no words. Speed in a straight line was one problem, but hardly the primary one. The main reason, in my opinion, was that we were killing the tires—eating them up in a matter of laps—because we were unable to turn corners quickly enough with the larger wing.”