Mercedes have admitted they were wrong to overrule George Russell at the time of their crucial pit decision at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Russell enjoyed an ideal start to the race as he got the jump on pole-sitter Lando Norris at the start line to take the lead. And he was in front for the early stages, with overtaking very difficult on a wet and treacherous Interlagos track.

But things unravelled as the downpours intensified. Out on track, Russell could feel that grip levels were worsening significantly and that, unless the rain eased off, it was likely that the race was going to be stopped for safety reasons.

Because of that hunch, he was telling the Mercedes strategists that he felt he should stay out on track rather than give up track position to pit for new tyres. But he was overruled and race engineer Marcus Dudley instructed the Brit to stop.

Not long after, Franco Colapinto crashed his Williams and the red flags flew. But the damage had been done and Russell found himself down in fourth place, with the two Alpine cars and the Red Bull of eventual winner Max Verstappen ahead because they had decided to chance their luck.

As soon as he was informed over the radio of the red flag, Russell lost his temper. “F***!” he shouted, adding: “I f***ing said it, should have stayed out.” Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has now admitted that the team should have listened to their driver.

In a video released by the team, he said: “With hindsight, you would manage most races differently but, certainly, in this case, we would have done. One of the key things is once they announced that the Virtual Safety Car was ending, we had a very, very short window, only a second or two, where we could have got George to stay out on track.

“The reason you would have done that is by that point, you are going to suffer a full pit loss anyway. You may as well stay out and just gamble on the fact that it was quite likely someone would have a crash, as happened, and that they are forced to red flag it.

“Prior to that, stopping to us made sense, because given that Lando was coming in, George was able to do that. He would have still been ahead of all those cars that stayed out. But you get the benefit of fresh rubber in case they do not call it as a red flag.

“Normally, we try not to assume that there is going to be a red flag, because sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get it wrong. If there is a safety car and you decide to stay out, assuming a red flag, if you do not get it, you are in trouble. But obviously, the cars that did stay out, that gamble worked for them, and they ended up in prime position.”