Both Mercedes ‘within 500 grams’ at start of Belgian GP

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 had 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 profitable 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 problem on Russell’s automobile.

“It was clearly very disappointing and unlucky, notably after he had pushed such a powerful race to win from up to now again,” Shovlin mentioned. “We try to grasp precisely what occurred.

“Loads of that includes us getting the weights of all of the totally different parts. The automobile can lose numerous weight through the race. You get tire put on, plank put on, brake put on, oil consumption. The motive force themselves can lose so much, 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 had been each weighed after qualifying. The vehicles had 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 appears to be like like we misplaced extra materials on the plank. We are going to accumulate all that knowledge, take a look at how we will refine our processes as a result of clearly, we are not looking for that to occur sooner or later.”

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Shovlin accepts the lack of weight would have had an impression on Russell’s general race time, albeit measured in extraordinarily small portions.

“When it comes to tempo firstly 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 weight sooner than Lewis’ all through the race, there’s an related achieve with that.

“However you’re into the hundredths of a second per lap. It is going to be very small as a result of when 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 mentioned, firstly of the race the vehicles had been the identical weight.”

With Hamilton inheriting the victory having initially completed second, Shovlin says there are clear positives that Mercedes is attempting to give attention to on account 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 house 1-2 was an actual achievement, notably as a result of we had had such a tough Friday. However general, apart from the frustration, the staff is basically inspired by the efficiency. It was an amazing turnaround by the engineering staff to get the automobile sorted out to carry out so effectively within the race.

“It was additionally encouraging for us as sizzling circuits haven’t been our power this yr. The observe was fairly sizzling there in Belgium and we had 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 certain, and only a disgrace that we couldn’t hold the consequence.”