George Russell believes that he and Mercedes have found the root cause for his recent Formula 1 struggles, and that he no longer needs to focus on adapting his driving to get the most from his car.
The Briton endured a dismal weekend at Spa-Francorchamps last time out, in which he trailed team-mate Kimi Antonelli by half a second in qualifying – and then ended up in the gravel after contact with Lewis Hamilton at Turn 5.
In the lead-up to his retirement, Russell had run out of battery on the Kemmel Straight and was caught out on the approach to the Les Combes trio of corners. Although not broadcasted, radio traffic emerged demonstrating Russell’s frustrations with the state of charge of his car.
Over the previous rounds, Russell had attempted to address his driving style in an effort to start matching Antonelli more consistently, but he now says that the data from Spa had shown that this was not the issue.
“Effectively there were numbers on the screen that were not quite calibrated properly,” Russell explained. “So it’s not like the hardware is wrong or there’s a problem with the hardware. But there were two issues in Spa as well.
“I think the deployment was not quite deploying optimally across the lap. We saw this with Piastri as well, who had a similar issue. So that was one of my problems.
George Russell, Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photo by: John Thys / AFP via Getty Images
“But then on top of [that], we had something separate. It was all linked to the same calibration being not quite right. I’m not going to say simply numbers on a screen, but now we know which numbers potentially were not correct.
“We can rectify that, recalibrate things, and give the power unit performance at its full potential.”
Russell says that uncovering the calibration issue was a relief, as he’d ended up having to think about his inputs behind the wheel; Mercedes had been led to the conclusion of driving approach by the data from the previous rounds.
For Hungary, Russell believes that he can now drive more naturally and “focus on the simple things” – and reckons that the previous attempts to address his driving was ultimately for nothing.
“Yeah, it’s a huge load off my mind,” he said. “But also while I’m driving, to be honest, because throughout some laps in Silverstone and then throughout the majority of Friday and Saturday in 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, how early I am before throttle.
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Michael Potts / LAT Images via Getty Images
“The data was telling us that was probably the reason, but it turned out it wasn’t the reason. So all of that effort over the course of three sessions trying to re-optimise my driving around a new technique was kind of for nothing.
“So I’m looking forward now to going into a weekend where I can just try and focus on driving fast, focus on the simple things.
“I know that is when I perform at my best, but we’re not in a simplistic sport, so saying let’s just solely focus on the simple things is easier said than done sometimes.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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