Mercedes suspects that plank and tyre put on, plus weight reduction by George Russell himself, could have contributed to his automotive being below the restrict on the finish of Formulation 1’s Belgian Grand Prix.
Russell was disqualified from his victory after final weekend’s race at Spa when his Mercedes was discovered to be 1.5kg beneath the minimal weight restrict of 798kg that features the driving force.
Early evaluation performed by Mercedes has not pinpointed one single issue as the reason for the issue, with the German producer persevering with to measure all automotive elements to attempt to perceive the place issues went flawed.
Preliminary suspicions revolved across the probability that Russell’s tyres had worn away – and due to this fact misplaced mass – as a result of he had pulled off an sudden one-stop technique within the race.
With tyres shedding as much as 1kg over the course of a stint, it’s extremely possible that the additional put on on previous tyres, in comparison with a more recent set that Russell would have used if he had caught to a two-stop, may make up the 375g per distinction on every tyre that might have gotten him over the load restrict.
However talking in Mercedes’ common post-race debrief video, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has advised that different components had been additionally at play – which the workforce was now digging into.
“[It was] clearly very disappointing and unlucky, significantly after he’d pushed such a powerful race to win from thus far again,” defined Shovlin.
“Proper now, we’re attempting to grasp precisely what occurred. A whole lot of that includes us getting the weights of all of the completely different elements.
“The automotive can lose numerous weight in the course of the race. You get tyre put on, plank put on, brake put on, oil consumption. The driving force themselves can lose quite a bit. And on this specific race, George misplaced fairly a little bit of weight.”
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15
Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Pictures
Shovlin defined that there had been no warning earlier than the race a couple of potential scenario creating, with Russell and team-mate Lewis Hamilton’s automotive weight being nearly similar when measured after qualifying.
“The vehicles began the race the identical weight,” added Shovlin. “Lewis and George had been each weighed after qualifying. The vehicles had been inside 500 grammes.
“George’s was the one one which had the issue, and it is as a result of issues just like the tyre put on was a lot greater. It appears like we misplaced extra materials on the plank. We’ll gather all that knowledge, although, and have a look at how we are able to refine our processes, as a result of clearly we do not need that to occur sooner or later.”
With it extensively understood that 10kg of weight will be value round 0.3 seconds round a observe like Spa-Francorchamps, a lacking 1.5kg may have given an incremental acquire in efficiency.
Shovlin thinks, nonetheless, that the true profit was exhausting to measure, particularly because the vehicles began the race weighing the identical.
Requested concerning the impression of Russell’s lighter automotive, Shovlin stated: “By way of tempo initially of the race, it is nil as a result of George’s automotive and Lewis’s automotive begin the race on the similar weight.
“Now, clearly, as George’s automotive was dropping pounds quicker than Lewis’s all through the race, there may be an related acquire with that, however you are into the hundredths of a second per lap.
“It is going to be very small, as a result of once you’re speaking about quantities, like one or two kilos, they do not quantity to numerous lap time.”
