He needed to make a 25-lap stint on a set of soft tires work despite high levels of tire degradation. He also needed to do all of that while experiencing multiple mechanical failures on his W16 over the final stretch of the race.

As the Bahrain Grand Prix unfolded and George Russell raced in second place, messages slowly came through on his radio that different systems were failing. Team principal Toto Wolff put it simply: “The car was wounded.