Okay, so here’s the thing. George Russell, right? He’s driving around like a madman at the Bahrain Grand Prix and just casually snags second place — which is already impressive. But there’s this whole kerfuffle about his faulty DRS, the drag reduction system, for those not in the know. Apparently, he’s under investigation for a DRS misstep during the race’s later stages. Riveting stuff, I know.
But let’s back up for a sec. George actually qualifies in second but starts in third due to some team rule-breaking hoopla which led to a grid penalty. Yeah, a bit of drama even before the race revs up. Somehow, he clawed back to second place and kept it to the finish line at Sakhir. Power moves, amirite?
So, here’s the plot twist. Mercedes was wrangling with a bunch of freaky electrical gremlins mid-race. Seriously, racing is hard enough without your car deciding to go rogue. It turns out Mr. Russell hit the team radio button which, totally by accident, cracked open the DRS on his car. Just picture it: meaning to say “Hello, team?” and instead, “Hey, here’s a little extra speed!” But, cue dramatic music, it happened outside the designated area where you’re allowed to do that. Scandalous, right? Normally, that’s a no-go.
The stewards, those folks in charge of keeping everything fair, took a long, hard look at what went down. Here’s the kicker: they opted to let it slide — no penalty. Why? It all boils down to some tech goblins messing up the system connection. Something about an external party and whatnot.
So, the FIA lets him hit the manual DRS button ’cause electronics were misbehaving. But there’s this hilarious mix-up – instead of getting his teammates in his ear, George, our guy accidentally activates the DRS between turns 10 and 11. That’s a precise 37 meters of accidental whoosh on a 700-meter stretch.
Did he gain an advantage? Technically yes, but a measly 0.02 seconds. Then he loses a solid chunk of time, about 0.28 seconds actually, at the next corner. Telemetry confirms it, so it’s like, what’s even the point?
Here’s the official mumbo jumbo from the stewards: Sure, by the books, it was kind of naughty, but because he didn’t really benefit from it, they just gave him a free pass. End of the day, George gets to keep his shiny second-place finish. So yeah, no harm, no foul or something like that. Quite the emotional rollercoaster for what’s fundamentally a blip. Racing, man, it’s wild.
