Formula 1 title contender George Russell says Mercedes has applied a remedy to the problems that have afflicted his car in the last two grands prix weekends.
Russell complained of a lack of top-end speed through his home grand prix in Britain, with the problem recurring in Belgium, costing him performance.
Russell and Mercedes were at a loss to explain the issue, having eventually ruled out his driving style being a contributing factor, before he was eliminated on the opening lack of the grand prix after a collision with Lewis Hamilton.
That came after Russell was left a sitting duck on the opening lap in Belgium due to deployment issues out of the first hairpin, caused by a software issue, which limited his top-end speed—which was different to his other problems.
Russell’s retirement dropped him to third position in the Drivers’ Championship, 50 points behind Antonelli.
Formula 1 introduced new engine regulations this year, and teams are still trying to understand their various complexities, with Russell revealing that a calibration issue in his W17 meant the power unit was not being operated to its potential.
Explaining the problem, Russell said: “Effectively it was numbers on a screen that were not quite calibrated properly, and so it’s not like the hardware is wrong or there’s a problem with the hardware.
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“But there were two issues in Spa as well, I think the deployment was not quite deploying optimally across the lap, we saw it with [Oscar] Piastri as well, so that was one of my problems.
“It was all linked to the calibration being not quite right; now we know which numbers were potentially not correct we can rectify that, recalibrate things, and get the power unit performing at its full potential.”
Russell described understanding the issue as “a huge load off my mind” given the focus he had put in to trying to adopt different driving techniques.
“Throughout some laps at Silverstone and the majority of Friday and Saturday at Spa I was thinking about how I needed to drive to make the power unit fast in the straight, how I pick up the throttle, the gear usage,” Russell said.
“The data was telling us that was probably the reason, it turned out it wasn’t the reason, so all of that effort across three sessions trying to reoptimize my driving around a new technique was kind of for nothing.
“I’m looking forward to going into a weekend where I can focus on driving fast, focus on the simple things, I know that’s when I perform at my best. We’re not in a simplistic sport so saying just focusing on the simple things is easier said than done!”
The energy-rich nature of the Hungaroring means that deployment and management will be less of an issue at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, compared to recent events at Silverstone and Spa, which were expected to be two of the worst layouts for the limitations of the current cars.
U.K.-based Phillip Horton started covering Grands Prix while still at university and swiftly deemed that writing about Formula 1 and the behind-the-scenes machinations was much more engaging than reading centuries-old novels. Degree gained, he went on to cover the sport full-time from 2014 and is as intrigued and excited by the destinations Formula 1 visits during its lengthy annual world tour as the racing itself. Phillip joined Autoweek in 2021 and while he has just about learned to spell in American English he has yet to find anywhere in America that makes a proper cup of tea.