Mercedes reveals George Russell and Lewis Hamilton’s cars were ‘within 500 grams’ after the former’s Belgian GP disqualification
Andrew Shovlin emphasized that Mercedes will look forward to analyze George Russell's disqualification to prevent such an incident in the future.
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Lewis Hamilton and George Russell (via IMAGO)
George Russell‘s disqualification at the Belgian GP was a crucial loss of points for Mercedes. Russell narrowly beat Lewis Hamilton but was disqualified for underweight car, promoting Hamilton to pole position after the race. Mercedes Team boss Toto Wolff and team decided to analyze and review what went wrong for George Russell’s weight drop down below the limit.
Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin explained that Mercedes both car’s started the race at the same weight. After qualifying, the cars of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were weighed and found to be within 500 grams. They had only an inch difference in their weight of the car’s. Russell was the only one who’s car faced weight problems because of more tire wear than the 39-year-old.
Now, the cars started the race at the same weight. Lewis [Hamilton] and George were both weighed after qualifying, cars within 500 grams. George's was the only one that had the problem because the tire wear was much higher.Andrew Shovlin said, as reported by RacingNews365
Shovlin reckoned that Russell might’ve lost more material from the car’s plank, which is underneath to protect the car from scratching. He emphasized that they are working to collect all the data related to this issue and analyze it carefully. Mercedes’s goal is to understand exactly what went wrong and to make improvements to their processes. They want to ensure that such problems must be avoided in the future to prevent similar issues from occurring.
It looks like we lost more material on the plank. We'll collect all that data though, look at how we can refine our processes, because clearly we don't want that to happen in the future.Andrew Shvolin added
Andrew Shovlin reckoned George Russell lost quite a lot of his weight during the Belgian GP
Andrew Shovlin stated that the team is trying to figure out the problems for Russell’s disqualification during the race. He mentioned the first step in analyzing is weighing different parts of the car. Because during the race there are various factors that cause car’s lose weight. Therefore it’s important for them to check each component to understand where and why this weight loss occurred.
We’re trying to understand exactly what happened. A lot of that involves as getting the weights of all the different components, and the car can lose quite a lot of weight during the race.
Andrew Shovlin stated.
Further, Shovlin explained that there are several factors that can cause a car to lose weight during a race. These include wear on the tires, wear on the car’s plank, brake wear, and oil consumption. Additionally, the driver can also lose weight during the race due to the car’s heat. He stated George Russell himself lost quite a bit of weight because of the weather conditions in Belgium. Thus, Shovlin thought there could be several reasons behind the unfortunate disqualification. They are looking forward to analyzing the mistake and improving in future races.
You get tire wear, plank wear, brake wear, oil consumption, the driver themselves can lose a lot, and in this particular race, George lost quite a bit of weightAndrew Shovlin added.
Certainly, Andrew Shovlin highlighted that the team is working hard even in the summer break to find the problems. Mercedes are one of the fastest teams right now and they won’t lose the pace at such ease. Hence the team decided to work throughout the summer break and shine the next ten races.
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Gaurang Kadam
(535 Articles Published)