Mercedes explains the crash involving Hamilton and Russell, but could it have been avoided?

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell collided on the first lap of the F1 Qatar Grand Prix, and Mercedes later called it a “mistake.” But could it have been avoided?

At Turn 1, Hamilton, who had soft starting tires, attempted to sweep around the outside of both Russell and Max Verstappen, who had mediums.
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However, when the two Mercedes collided, Russell was forced to pit and dropped to the very back of the pack, sending Hamilton spinning off into the gravel and out of the race.
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The unexpectedly mandated maximum tyre stint life for Sunday’s grand prix, which put Hamilton on the back foot, Mercedes claimed was a factor in the decision to split strategies with their cars.
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In the Mercedes team’s post-Qatar debrief video, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin stated that Lewis had the fewest options of all the drivers on the starting grid in terms of race tyres, and in particular, in terms of the medium.
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This was partially caused by the laps we completed on Friday morning before we knew there might be a problem with the tyres.
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“Now, the medium he would have to use had a life span so short that it actually had a range very similar to the soft.
Given that George had a strong start with the soft tyre the day before and that it performed admirably on restarts under safety cars, we decided to start Lewis on the soft tyre due to his superior grip off the line and the likelihood that there wouldn’t be any negative effects on his range.
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Mercedes acknowledged that they had talked about the possibility that Hamilton might have passed Russell by the first corner, but they decided against issuing team orders and instead let the race unfold naturally.
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There was always a possibility that Lewis on the soft tyre would get a better start and pass George before Turn 1; we discussed the start tyre choice with both drivers on Sunday morning, Shovlin said.
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“So that was always taken into account, but they knew they were on different strategies, and it was crucial that they didn’t waste time racing one another.
However, we weren’t imposing team orders during the race.
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Shovlin continued by stating that what happened at Turn 1 was “simply a mistake”.
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Would this have happened if Russell had been given the explicit order to refrain from challenging Hamilton in this circumstance?

It’s true that organizing such a team order would have been incredibly difficult given the chaotic and unpredictable nature of a grand prix start, where so many factors are at play.
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The driver with more leeway to be flexible was Hamilton. And as he admitted by holding up his hands and taking responsibility after the race, the seven-time world champion made a small error in judgment that cost both Mercedes dearly.
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Russell had a difficult time avoiding the collision because he was sandwiched between Verstappen and Hamilton.
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However, in the second phase of the start, just before the braking zone, Russell did make a small movement to cover off his teammate, knowing that Hamilton had gotten the better initial launch.
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At least theoretically, Russell could have gotten closer to Verstappen by tucking in behind him, giving Hamilton more room to maneuver on the outside if the Mercedes drivers had been instructed to cooperate from the start.
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When the roles were reversed and Red Bull found themselves in a position to launch a dual attack on a single Mercedes, it feels exactly like the kind of thing that, being the cunning operators that they are, they would have done.

The whole situation was made more perplexing by the knowledge Russell had of what was possible on soft tires due to his start on that exact compound the day before, as well as the fact that Mercedes had discussed the possibility of Hamilton getting the jump on Russell.
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Verstappen had a chance to pass Hamilton and take the lead.
In many ways, Mercedes had nothing to lose by taking the risk because it might have been their best chance to defeat Red Bull.
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Verstappen could have been stopped by Hamilton or Russell for a few laps, giving them a chance to win if they had been able to use their faster tyres to slow Verstappen’s progress.
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Given that Oscar Piastri of McLaren finished less than five seconds behind Verstappen at the finish line, that possibility does not seem completely out of the question.
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If the Turn 1 collision hadn’t occurred, Russell believed he could have challenged Verstappen for the victory.
Because of his impressive comeback to fourth, he ran with strong pace.
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Russell stated, “We think we were on pace, if not faster, than McLaren.”.
“It really caught me off guard to see Piastri finish so close to Max.
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The early predictions, according to Shovlin, were scoring few points while entering at the back of the pack.
Those forecasts improved as the race progressed.
They ultimately predicted that he would come in fourth place.
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He was able to overtake, he was able to pass some important cars early on, and once he got into free air, we could see that the race pace was actually quite good, so that’s what changed that.
He was able to make up so many locations thanks to that.
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With the benefit of hindsight, it appears that the dramatic crash could (and should have been avoided). It will forever be remembered as an example of “what might have been.”.
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The collision was a huge shame and might have unintentionally cost Mercedes their best opportunity to win this year.