Could Mercedes have prevented Hamilton-Russell collision?

Mercedes could have prevented Lewis Hamilton collision with George Russell, says Ted Kravitz Lewis Hamilton accepted responsibility for causing a first-corner collision with Mercedes team-mate George Russell in the Qatar Grand Prix; Sky Sports F1's Ted Kravitz and Karun Chandhok discuss whether the situation was avoidable Last Updated: 12/10/23 5:28pm Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Mercedes team-mates Lewis Hamilton and George Russell collide on the opening lap of the Qatar Grand Prix. Mercedes team-mates Lewis Hamilton and George Russell collide on the opening lap of the Qatar Grand Prix. Mercedes lost out on the opportunity to claim a significant haul of points as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell collided on the opening lap of the Qatar Grand Prix, but could the team have prevented the incident from occurring? With Russell starting second and Hamilton third, behind the Red Bull of newly crowned world champion Max Verstappen, the British pair came together at the first corner.Hamilton, who apologised and accepted "100 per cent" responsibility for the incident afterwards, attempted to overtake his team-mate around the outside, leaving Russell, who had Verstappen on his inside, with nowhere to go. Hamilton came off worse as he lost a tyre and was left beached in the gravel, while Russell was hugely fortunately not to sustain any major damage, rejoining at the back of the field after spinning off.Russell drove a brilliant race to fight back to fourth, but the 25-year-old's strong display also left Mercedes pondering what might have been if it weren't for the incident. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Lewis Hamilton says he takes responsibility for the collision with his team-mate, while George Russell insists they will get past the incident. Lewis Hamilton says he takes responsibility for the collision with his team-mate, while George Russell insists they will get past the incident. While it's unclear whether they had enough pace to challenge Verstappen, they appeared to have more than enough in hand to secure a double podium behind the Dutchman.As it was, Ferrari made ground in the constructors' standings, reducing second-placed Mercedes' advantage over the Italian team to 28 points with five races remaining.Although Hamilton took responsibility for the collision, Ted Kravitz suggested on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast that Mercedes could, and maybe should, have taken pre-race action to guard against what eventually transpired.Ted: Different strategies represented opportunity for MercedesSky Sports F1's Ted Kravitz explains why he was surprised at Mercedes' failure to implement team orders at the start of the Qatar GP: "You might be able to say that had they been on the same tyres at the start of the race, but they weren't. And that's what really probably underlines the frustration at Mercedes was that they were on different strategies. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, Ted Kravitz discusses whether the Mercedes collision was a long time coming and how the team-mates could have avoided the crash. Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, Ted Kravitz discusses whether the Mercedes collision was a long time coming and how the team-mates could have avoided the crash. "At the middle or end of the race, drivers are quite happy to swap positions because they're obviously on different strategies and it's not going to affect them, it's not a measure of their racing ability if you're ordering the team to let one pass the other, it's just sound management."So why wouldn't that have occurred at the first corner of the first lap? Because surely they had discussed the fact that Lewis was on a different strategy. on the soft tyre in the first stint. And his race really depended, because he had so few laps on his medium and his hard tyres, on getting in front of Max and making that soft tyre work for him, maybe slowing down the pace on that soft tyre and getting a good stint length out of the soft tyre."Because if you include the soft tyres, he actually had some good stint length in his allocation. But then George fighting him negated all of that. And I'm not saying it's George's fault, Lewis admitted moving across on him. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player It would appear all is well between George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, after the Mercedes pair embraced each following their collision at the Qatar GP. It would appear all is well between George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, after the Mercedes pair embraced each following their collision at the Qatar GP. "So I don't understand why it wouldn't have been the Mercedes strategy to say, 'okay guys, this is what we're going do. Lewis is on the soft, he is going to come ro