The ‘racing intent document’ Mercedes hope will prevent another Hamilton-Rosberg

Hamilton and George Russell 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. 

Having made a fast start on soft tyres, Hamilton swooped around the outside and attempted to overtake both Russell and Max Verstappen, who had started on the medium compound. 

But with Russell sandwiched between Hamilton and Verstappen with nowhere to go, the two Mercedes made contact. 

Russell recovered to salvage fourth place while Hamilton accepted responsibility for the incident as the two drivers left Qatar on good terms. 

“In the [pre-race] strategy meeting we discussed the likely [tyre] 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. 

“I think rule number one for any racing team is that the two cars don’t make contact. That is something the drivers have bought into just like every other member of the team is as well.

“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.

“I think the feature of this season has been how well they’ve worked together to try and lead the team back from the difficult position in which we started with the car, and I’m sure they’ll continue to do that for the last five races and hopefully secure P2 in the [constructors’] championship.”

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. 

“I remember that one,” Lord recalled. “I think experiences like 2016 and others that we’ve had over the years, actually it’s a great shared experience of how as a team we approach those moments and sort of learn from them and work through them as well.

“We have our racing intent, our sort of shared document that we all buy into in terms of how we approach races as a team, how we try to maximise the team’s points-scoring, and the drivers have bought into that along with everybody else. That’s really the basis for how we talk about things and move forward.”