George Russell's race in Melbourne may have ended with an engine failure, but that was not the only slice of bad luck that came the Brit's way during the Australian Grand Prix.
Things were looking so good for Russell. Despite the struggles Mercedes are enduring again at the start of this new Formula 1 season, he and Lewis Hamilton came up with cracking laps in qualifying to start second and third, behind only the defending champion.
Russell was sharing the front row with Max Verstappen, with two world titles to his name so far. Behind him was Hamilton with his seven championship successes, and Fernando Alonso – also a double title-winner earlier in his career.
But the man from King's Lynn did not look out of place surrounded by F1 royalty, nor did he shy away from the challenge. An excellent launch off the line was followed by him placing his car perfectly going into the first corner to take the lead of the race.
Given the pace of the Red Bull, it seems reasonable to assume Russell wouldn't have been able to stay there for the whole race. After all, Verstappen made his eventual DRS-assisted overtake on Hamilton – who also moved past on that opening lap – look so, so easy.
The problem is, he never got the chance to try. The safety car was called back out of the pit lane when Alex Albon crashed, and Russell duly dived into the pits to grab a cheap change of tyres. As he was emerging, the race was red flagged and suddenly everyone was making their way back to the garages.
Leading before he pitted, Russell was seventh when the race was halted, having made his stop while no-one else ahead of him had. Even though his tyre change cost less time than usual because of the safety car, everyone else now had the opportunity to make a change for free.
The rules allow tyre changes to be made under a red flag, meaning teams could switch onto the other mandated compound for that race and, in theory, avoid having to make an in-race pit stop at all. This is something which needs to be addressed.
The whole point of the red flag is that the race is completely halted for a specific amount of time, before being restarted when possible. How is it fair for cars to be using one tyre compound when the race stops to then suddenly remerge at the restart wearing a brand new set of rubber boots – without losing track position?
Race strategies always involve a degree of risk and that's part of what helps to make F1 races exciting. But it seems fairer all round that the risk of a slow stop or a badly-timed trip to the pit lane should be a responsibility that all 20 cars have to bear.
