Team principal Toto Wolff says Mercedes is looking into the top speed issue that held George Russell back in Formula 1 British Grand Prix qualifying.
Russell qualified almost four tenths down on team-mate Kimi Antonelli at Silverstone, losing most of that time on the Hangar Straight as Antonelli was an average of around 6km/h faster. Both Mercedes drivers appeared to use similar energy harvesting techniques through the preceding Maggotts-Becketts section, so the telemetry didn’t point to an obvious difference there. The top speed deficit was also apparent in sprint qualifying, albeit to a lesser extent, while in the race the difference was also much smaller, around 3 to 4km/h.
Speaking after the race, Wolff said the team would have to conduct a deeper investigation into the issue as there was no apparent difference on a power unit level.
“He had a straight-line issue all weekend,” Wolff explained. “We couldn’t see anything on engine power. It must have been down to some kind of mechanical situation, whether it was a tow or something else. But definitely the data confirmed that he was down, but very difficult to identify.
“That was much better [during the race]. We didn’t see that anymore. But nevertheless, it’s something we need to understand.”
Speaking after qualifying on Saturday, Russell said: “This whole weekend we’ve been struggling with straightline speed, we don’t know why. Compared to all the other Mercedes cars losing 6km/h in the last sector, 3km/h in the middle sector, there’s a couple tenths over the lap compared to all the other Mercedes cars so I don’t really know why that is.
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
“The team is working super hard to try and understand. This morning we thought we found the problem because it was there yesterday but it wasn’t the issue, so that’s not making things easier. If I’m losing 5km/h in the straight, you know you can’t fight.”
On Sunday night, after Russell managed to recover from an extra pitstop for a slow puncture to finish second behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, the Briton admitted that his own performance also needed to be taken up a notch to challenge championship leader Antonelli.
“The feeling was good, but the lap times were slow. And as I said, there were things outside of my control that contributed a lot towards that, and things in my control,” he said, going into next week’s Belgian Grand Prix 25 points behind Antonelli.
“I’m still struggling to understand this car. I will probably still leave this weekend, albeit extremely grateful to stand on the podium, I leave less satisfied than probably Canada, when I broke down from the lead.
“If I want to fight for the championship, the performances need to be better. I need to be better. I need to be working better with my team. We need to be maximising everything. We’ve got a close fight now with Ferrari, so it’s not just Kimi and I, Lewis is still very close. It needs to be improved.”
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