Uphill start
It was not an easy Friday at Spa for George Russell. The Englishman from Mercedes finished FP2 of the Belgian GP in eighth position, even taking a gap of one second and two tenths behind teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli. A very heavy gap, which certainly does not represent Russell’s absolute value but still outlines a certain hierarchy ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying.
Tires, grip and power unit
However, Andrew Shovlin came to Russell’s defense, speaking at the end of FP2. The Mercedes technical director tried to provide an explanation for the British driver’s difficult Friday and especially for why his qualifying simulation went so badly compared to that of his garage mate. Everything starts, according to Shovlin, from a tire problem: “It’s not an exceptional lap for George, but it was just one lap, so if that one doesn’t go well it seems like you have no pace, but that’s not the case. He felt he didn’t have the tires ready at the start of the lap, which means a small loss of time“.
“There were some corners where it seems he underestimated the level of grip – Shovlin added – but given the first session we had, it’s not a big surprise. There are aspects he needs to work on, but we can see a lot in the data we will analyze and I’m quite sure he will be there with the best tomorrow“. Russell, due to the poor grip, lost time at Les Combes, in the section of corners 7-8-9. This slowdown then compromised the rest of his lap also because he ‘shifted’ the energy deployment compared to Antonelli’s.
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“The problem is that if the corners are slower, this affects power delivery – Shovlin observed – when you are on a type of track like this or like Silverstone was, these differences are greatly amplified. George ended the day in eighth position, a result that does not reflect his abilities – concluded the Mercedes engineer – he was able to make only one attempt and we can see several areas where he can improve ahead of the weekend“. Watch out though, because Antonelli is already pulling away.
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