Credits: IMAGO Eibner, IMAGO / ZUMA Wire
Toto Wolff headed into the 2020 Sakhir GP with his star driver Lewis Hamilton out, and a young George Russell replacing him for the weekend. In what could have been an emphatic win for Russell and Mercedes, the outing turned out to be disastrous due to a horror pit stop. Wolff, questioning his team, decided to approach race-winner Sergio Perez’s strategist Bernie Collins, and ask her her opinion on what went wrong.
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Collins’ incredible strategy call gave Perez his first-ever F1 win that evening in Sakhir. Mercedes, on the other hand, lost out on the opportunity to win the race despite being the favorites because they fitted the wrong tires in Russell’s car midway into the outing.
A few laps later, Russell pitted again to rectify the situation and then began chasing the win again. However, this time a tire puncture took his moment of glory away from him.
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After the Grand Prix, Collins and the rest of the Racing Point team celebrated with Perez. Four years later, in one of the episodes of the Fast and the Curious Podcast, Collins reveals that Wolff came up to her and asked her if she would have advised him to make the pit-stop that cost Russell the win. In reply, Collins said,
“It felt like a massive vow, respect. You know that he’s asked me would I make that decision.”
Wolff, one of F1’s most successful team principals ever, was in charge of the sport’s most dominant team back then. Still, they made an error that spoiled an entire weekend in what was otherwise a near-perfect season.
A humble Wolff showed respect to the winning team’s strategist by taking her input in the decision that cost his team. But what did Collins say to Wolff?
Toto Wolff’s self-doubt resolved by Bernie Collins
When the hosts of the Fast and the Curious podcast asked Bernie Collins what she told Toto Wolff, the ex-strategist revealed that she believes that the Mercedes team made the right decision. She stated that she also would have asked Wolff to pit, just like Mercedes’ strategist did on the day.
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“It was the right thing for them to do the pitstop,” said Collins. “Like the strategist doesn’t know the pit-stop is going to go wrong.”
Had George Russell‘s initial stop gone perfectly, he would have been in pole position to get his first-ever race win. The Briton, who was driving for Williams in 2020, only filled in that weekend for Mercedes because Lewis Hamilton had contracted COVID-19.
Instead of potentially getting his maiden win that day, Russell finished all the way down in P9. In the process, he earned two points for the Silver Arrows, which incidentally were also his first points in F1.
