“Satisfied to come away with third and fourth positions,” Andrew Shovlin delighted after hard-fought result in Austria
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Mercedes engineering director Andrew Shovlin has after the race come out and shared his opinion of the outing the Brackley-based team had at the Red Bull Ring.
Andrew Shovlin has praised both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell for the mega job that they did and has indicated the fact that they were able to bring 27 valuable points for the Mercedes Formula One team.
However, it was not all smooth sailing for the duo during the initial days of the Austria event, both Hamilton and Russell crashed their car during Friday’s Qualifying and from there it was a big job for the crew to get the cars in peak condition ahead of the race.
Shovlin while talking about the difficulties that the team faced in Austria said, “It’s been a very tough weekend in the garage but very satisfying to come away with third and fourth positions.”
The race engineer also gave his opinion on the Russell-Perez incident and said, “We felt that George’s penalty for the incident with Sergio was harsh. He was up on the apex kerb and left more than enough room.”
Also Read: Mercedes’ classy gesture to a Lewis Hamilton fan who was subject to sexist abuse at the Austrian GP
Andrew Shovlin has praised George Russell and Lewis Hamilton for their exploits in Austria
George Russell did not get off to the best of starts during the race as after sustaining some damage from clashing with Perez, Russell had to come into the pits to change his front end and while shedding light over it Shovlin said, “we had to change the front wing after the contact, so it made for a very long stop. He had to pass through the field twice but raced superbly and maximized the opportunity.“
“Similarly, Lewis had rather a lot to do in the first stint due to his start position. Once he was through the midfield cars he had good pace but by then the gap to Charles and Max was way too big to chase so we just focused on bringing the car home.”
Moreover, the British engineer after the race admitted that Austria hasn’t been a strong track for Mercedes in recent years but feels that the team showed great fighting spirit at the circuit and while stressing about it said, “This hasn’t been a track that has suited us in recent years. Despite lacking a little pace to Ferrari and Red Bull, we’re encouraged by the fact we’re moving in the right direction and have more to come in the next few races.
“We have a busy few days ahead at the factory to recover the situation on car parts, this weekend has not been great in that regard! But we’ll pull that back in time for Paul Ricard and are looking forward to a track that should suit the car.”
Andrew Shovlin is optimistic about going to France in two weeks’ time and believes that the track there will suit the W13 more as compared to Austria. Lewis Hamilton has now had three consecutive third-place finishes and do you think he would again be able to land his car in podium places at the end of the French Grand Prix?
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Rishabh Negi
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