Mercedes deputy technical director Simone Resta has looked into George Russell’s recent problems as the team identified a software problem exacerbated by the Brit’s older power unit.
Russell and his team were amazed at the lack of top speed compared to his teammate Kimi Antonelli at Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps. Mercedes’ leading driver tried in vain to change his driving style as his problems were related to the engine’s software code, which caused an imbalance in the energy distribution.
“As we all know, this is a very complex new set of rules for the propulsion unit,” said Resta. “It’s still early days. We’ve only completed 10 races so far and there’s still a lot to learn. We’re still learning a lot together, ourselves and our colleagues at HPP. We found an error in our software and had to react to it.”
“There was already something at Silverstone, but the problem was even more obvious at Spa, as it is one of the tracks with the highest lap times for power delta. We think we finally got it and nailed it in Budapest.”
Resta made it clear that Antonelli’s car was not spared from this problem, but the Italian second-year student benefited from a newer powertrain in this regard.
“The software is the same for all cars and it was in every car, but it affected George more than Kimi,” he said.
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
“We also have to remember that when comparing performance in the last few races, Kimi was running with a newer engine, which of course is always a little better than a fairly used engine. That will change in the next races when we start to have a fresher engine at George’s side.”
“So there’s a little bit of everything. There’s a little bit of software, but there’s also Kimi, who doesn’t agree with George’s program. When you look at the end result, you can sum it all up.”
Russell’s problem indirectly led to his retirement on the first lap of the Belgian Grand Prix when he was swallowed up by his rivals on the Kemmel Straight before being thrown into the gravel by his former teammate Lewis Hamilton. He is now 50 points behind Antonelli in the drivers’ standings.
When asked by Motorsport how important it was for Russell that Mercedes took his concerns and complaints seriously, Resta replied: “First of all, as a team, we are really grateful to George for challenging us and highlighting an opportunity that we needed to focus on. He was really good at understanding us and highlighting things. Finally we were able to find the solution and find a solution for this race. So thank you very much to George for doing that for us, for the team.”
“Of course he’s very happy that we got to the bottom of the matter and sorted it out. It was good teamwork. It wasn’t the easiest thing. As I said, there’s still a lot to learn with the new regulations. But it’s a step forward.”
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https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mercedes-software-issue-affected-george-more-than-kimi/10841615/
