Mercedes imagine George Russell’s automotive fell beneath the minimal weight restrict due to greater than anticipated put on on his tyres and the plank beneath his automotive.
Russell misplaced victory in Sunday’s race when his W15 was discovered to be 1.5 kilograms beneath the authorized minimal weight restrict of 798kg. His group mate Lewis Hamilton inherited the win.
“Initially of the race the automobiles have been the identical weight,” mentioned Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin. They imagine unexpectedly excessive put on ranges in two areas meant Russell’s automotive ended the race lighter than anticipated.
“Clearly it’s very disappointing and unlucky, notably after he’d pushed such a robust race to win from up to now again,” Shovlin mentioned in a video launched by Mercedes. “Proper now we’re making an attempt to know precisely what occurred.
“A variety of that includes us getting the weights of all of the completely different parts. The automotive can lose various weight in the course of the race. You get tyre put on, plank put on, brake put on, oil consumption. The drivers themselves can lose lots and on this explicit race George misplaced fairly a little bit of weight.
“Now, the automobiles began the race the identical weight. Lewis and George have been each weighed after qualifying, the automobiles have been inside 500 grams.
“George’s was the one one which had the issue and it’s as a result of issues just like the tyre put on was a lot greater. It appears to be like like we misplaced extra materials on the plank.”
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All automobiles have similar planks fitted to their underside that are measured for put on after the race. Planks are permitted to put on by no multiple millimetre throughout a race.
Mercedes fell foul of this rule final yr, when Hamilton was disqualified after ending second in the USA Grand Prix. Spa is a very difficult monitor to handle plank put on due to the compression because the automobiles cross via Eau Rouge at excessive pace.
The group additionally modified the specification of flooring on each their automobiles at Spa after the primary day of apply, which was dry. Saturday was moist however the monitor dried out earlier than the race on Sunday.
Mercedes did no apply working on with laborious tyre compound Russell utilized in his remaining stint, which lined nearly three-quarters of the race. Russell switched to a one-stop technique in the course of the race, which the group didn’t plan earlier than the race.
“We’ll gather all that information, take a look at how we will refine our processes as a result of clearly we don’t need that to occur sooner or later,” Shovlin added.
Mercedes imagine Russell’s automotive didn’t fall beneath the minimal weight restrict till late within the race and it will solely have offered a slight efficiency profit. “By way of tempo at first of the race, it’s nil [gain], as a result of George’s automotive and Lewis’s automotive began the race on the identical weight,” he mentioned.
“Clearly, as George’s automotive was losing a few pounds quicker than Lewis’s all through the race, there may be an related achieve with that, however you’re into hundredths of a second per lap. It is going to be very small as a result of while you’re speaking about quantities like one or two kilos, they don’t quantity to lots of lap time.”
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2024 Belgian Grand Prix
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