Mercedes will look to adapt its processes to keep away from a repeat of George Russell’s disqualification within the Belgian Grand Prix, after revealing its vehicles have been inside 500 grams of one another beginning the race.
Russell was disqualified for his automobile being 1.5 kilograms (3.3 lbs) underweight after successful Sunday’s race at Spa-Francorchamps, having pulled off an initially unplanned one-stop technique to run lengthy to the tip. Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin reiterated that extreme tire put on was a probable contributing issue, however that it was solely a difficulty on Russell’s automobile.
“It was clearly very disappointing and unlucky, notably after he had pushed such a robust race to win from to date again,” Shovlin stated. “We are attempting to grasp precisely what occurred.
“Plenty of that entails us getting the weights of all of the totally different parts. The automobile can lose numerous weight throughout the race. You get tire put on, plank put on, brake put on, oil consumption. The motive force themselves can lose rather a lot, and on this explicit race George misplaced fairly a little bit of weight.
“The vehicles began the race the identical weight. Lewis [Hamilton] and George have been each weighed after qualifying. The vehicles have been inside 500 grams. George’s automobile was the one one which had the issue, and it’s as a result of issues just like the tire put on was a lot increased. It seems like we misplaced extra materials on the plank. We are going to acquire all that information, take a look at how we are able to refine our processes as a result of clearly, we don’t want that to occur sooner or later.”
Shovlin accepts the lack of weight would have had an impression on Russell’s general race time, albeit measured in extraordinarily small portions.
“By way of tempo at the beginning of the race it’s nil as a result of George’s automobile and Lewis’ automobile begin the race on the identical weight. Clearly, as George’s automobile was shedding pounds quicker than Lewis’ all through the race, there’s an related acquire with that.
“However you’re into the hundredths of a second per lap. It will likely be very small as a result of if you find yourself speaking about quantities like one or two kilos, they don’t quantity to a whole lot of lap time. However as I stated, at the beginning of the race the vehicles have been the identical weight.”
With Hamilton inheriting the victory having initially completed second, Shovlin says there are clear positives that Mercedes is attempting to deal with because of its efficiency in Belgium, regardless of the frustration of shedding a one-two.
“It was very a lot a bittersweet second. It was a incredible end to the race. To get the vehicles dwelling 1-2 was an actual achievement, notably as a result of we had had such a troublesome Friday. However general, other than the frustration, the group is de facto inspired by the efficiency. It was an excellent turnaround by the engineering group to get the automobile sorted out to carry out so nicely within the race.
“It was additionally encouraging for us as sizzling circuits haven’t been our energy this yr. The observe was fairly sizzling there in Belgium and we have been capable of carry out very well, notably on the long term. George clearly did one of many longest stints of anybody. Loads of positives for positive, and only a disgrace that we couldn’t preserve the outcome.”
