The unauthorized activation of George Russell’s DRS during the Bahrain Grand Prix continues to spark debate. While running in second place ahead of Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris, who were battling each other, the Briton mistakenly activated the drag reduction system on the return straight between Turns 10 and 11.
The driver immediately admitted over the radio that he had made a mistake while trying to contact the pit wall, but stated he had gained no advantage from it. Let’s take a look at what happened.
ECU failure
In the second half of the race, Mercedes #63 suffered an issue with the FIA’s electronic control unit, which even caused problems with the timing screen, removing George Russell from the leaderboard. George promptly informed the team of a DRS malfunction, to which his engineer responded by instructing him to initiate a default procedure to disable the automatic mode and allow manual activation.
At that point, any improper use would be entirely the driver’s responsibility, and he did in fact use it on a couple of occasions (albeit for just a few meters). Race Control then placed George Russell under investigation, officially summoning him to present his case after the podium ceremony.
“It was clearly a technical issue. The DRS probably opened for less than a second, so… I don’t know how it was triggered. There were all kinds of problems with the transponder and the signal to the car. Honestly, I can’t give you an answer because I was also losing all the information on the steering wheel, I had no data. I lost everything, so I was really compromised in the final stint. It would be really harsh if something were to happen (with the stewards),” said George Russell.
The precedents
It’s not the first time something like this has happened in Formula 1 since DRS became a part of modern racing, but there’s one thing that works in Russell’s favor: there are no precedents of penalties.
The last case dates back around seven years, specifically the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. In Baku, Lance Stroll, Kevin Magnussen, and Sergio Perez all came under scrutiny for unauthorized DRS activation, again due to a system malfunction that required them to use manual mode.
On that occasion, all three drivers were cleared because “no car was overtaken through the incorrect use of DRS,” and Sergio Perez kept the podium he had secured with Force India.
In 2013, Fernando Alonso was also involved in a similar controversy after activating the DRS three times during the Hungarian Grand Prix. Ferrari proved that the Spaniard had received incorrect signals on his steering wheel dashboard, so he wasn’t penalized (although Ferrari was fined €15,000).
Going even further back, at Valencia 2012, Michael Schumacher accidentally activated the rear wing under double yellow flags while fighting Webber. The Red Bull driver immediately reported the incident via radio, but even then, the Mercedes driver kept his podium (the last of his career).
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