David Croft Supports George Russell's Frustration After Monza
George Russell walked away from Monza with second place, but not with peace of mind. David Croft believes he has every reason to feel that way.
On the Sky Sports F1 Show, the broadcaster’s lead commentator dissected Mercedes’ late-race call under the Virtual Safety Car that flipped the Italian Grand Prix on its head and, in his view, left the wrong man exposed.
The call that changed the race
Russell had done the hard yards. After the early red flag, Mercedes put him on hard tyres and committed to a long, disciplined stint. He executed it, managed the pace, and led the race on track. The plan was clear: go to the end.
Then came the late Virtual Safety Car.
With Max Verstappen looming as a threat, Mercedes chose to pit Kimi Antonelli for medium tyres, giving the Italian a performance boost for the final laps. Russell, still leading and still on hards, was told to stay out.
The consequence was brutal and swift. Armed with fresher, softer rubber, Antonelli hunted down his team-mate, erased the gap and swept past with three laps to go. From 19th on the grid to victory at home – a fairytale for Antonelli, but a bitter twist for the man he passed.
Russell, who had controlled the race from the front, had to settle for second.
“They should also be thinking, ‘We’ll bring in George as well’”
Croft did not dance around it.
“He should feel aggrieved,” he said, arguing that Mercedes had failed in their first duty: protect the car leading the race on track.
“The strategy was to go to the end. He made it to the end. His pace was OK. But the minute Mercedes are thinking, ‘Well, we should bring in Kimi to cover off Max,’ they should also be thinking, ‘We’ll bring in George as well.’”
The crux of Croft’s argument is not that Antonelli shouldn’t have stopped. It’s that if one Mercedes came in, both should have.
“I know Kimi might have lost out by a couple of seconds with that double stack, but you've got a cheap pitstop. You've got an opportunity there,” Croft said.
The VSC offered exactly that: a low-cost stop to reset both cars onto the same tyre, remove the internal offset, and let them fight – or at least defend – on equal terms.
Instead, Mercedes split the strategies. Antonelli got the mediums. Russell stayed on the worn hards and became a sitting duck.
Safety first – for whom?
Russell himself hinted at his frustration straight after the race, admitting he was “a little surprised to see Kimi coming in.” He didn’t appear to expect anyone to pit at all.
Croft believes the team owed their race leader more cover.
“George says it came at the wrong time; the medium tyre runners would have struggled towards the end,” Croft noted. “But a bit of safety first on this one, and give your lead driver, who's out there and is doing a fine job, the opportunity to compete on equal terms if you've got equality within the team, which they have.”
That is the heart of it. Equality. If Mercedes judged that Antonelli needed fresh tyres to fend off Verstappen and go for the win, Croft argues the same logic should have applied to Russell – the man actually leading.
“I would feel a bit aggrieved if I was George,” he added. “If they thought Kimi needed a change of tyres, they should have done the same with George.”
Antonelli’s charge from 19th to a first home win will dominate the highlight reels. Inside Mercedes, though, the Monza debrief will sound very different – and Russell’s side of the garage will want to know why the car in front wasn’t the one most fiercely protected.
