George Russell beat Lewis Hamilton to the chequered flag on the Belgian Grand Prix however misplaced his winner’s trophy to his Mercedes team-mate after he was disqualified
Picture: Components 1 through Getty Pictures)
Mercedes are nonetheless making an attempt to determine precisely why George Russell’s automobile completed the Belgian Grand Prix underweight – however have named three contributing components.
Russell received the race on the highway after what had an impressed name over the radio to pivot to a one-stop technique. Staff-mate Lewis Hamilton modified tyres twice and caught up, however was unable to get previous within the ultimate few laps.
Nevertheless, Russell’s pleasure was quick lived as, not lengthy after the rostrum ceremony, it emerged that his automobile had failed FIA post-race checks. As soon as that course of had been ratified, the Briton was duly disqualified and victory went to his Mercedes team-mate.
The staff has been making an attempt since to determine precisely how Russell’s automobile had are available 1.5kg underneath the minimal required weight of 798kg. That complete consists of the driving force, who’s weighed individually on a set of scales earlier than the 2 figures are added collectively.
Talking in a newly-released staff video, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has offered contemporary perception on the matter. He advised tyre and plank put on would have each had an influence, together with the load misplaced by Russell himself in the course of the sizzling race.
He stated: “It was clearly very disappointing and unlucky, significantly after he had pushed such a powerful race to win from to this point again. We are attempting to know precisely what occurred. A variety of that entails us getting the weights of all of the completely different elements.
“The automobile can lose various 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 so much, and on this specific race George misplaced fairly a little bit of weight. The automobiles began the race the identical weight. Lewis and George have been each weighed after qualifying. The automobiles have been inside 500 grams.
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Picture:
AFP through Getty Pictures)
“George’s automobile was the one one which had the issue, and it’s as a result of issues just like the tyre put on was a lot increased. It seems to be like we misplaced extra materials on the plank. We’ll acquire all that knowledge although, have a look at how we are able to refine our processes as a result of clearly, we are not looking for that to occur sooner or later.”
Shovlin went on to assert that Russell’s automobile being underweight would have had a negligible influence on efficiency, including: “By way of tempo at first 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 may be an related achieve with that.
“However you’re into the hundredths of a second per lap. It will likely 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 stated, at first of the race the automobiles have been the identical weight.”
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