After the qualifying of the British GP, the director of the Mercedes team, Toto Wolff, revealed that they are investigating a straight-line speed issue affecting George Russell. The British driver qualified nearly four tenths slower than his teammate, Kimi Antonelli, particularly on Hangar Straight, where Antonelli was on average about 6 km/h faster.
Both drivers used similar energy recovery techniques during the Maggotts-Becketts section, so the telemetry did not show any obvious difference in this aspect. This speed deficit was also noticeable during the sprint qualifying phase, albeit less pronounced, and during the race, the difference was smaller, around 3 to 4 km/h.
Wolff stated that it is necessary to delve deeper into the investigation since no anomaly was detected at the engine level. “He had a straight-line problem all weekend. We did not observe anything abnormal in the engine power. It must be due to some mechanical situation, either a tow or something else. But the data confirmed that he was at a disadvantage, and it is hard to identify,” explained Wolff.
After qualifying, Russell commented: “We have struggled with straight-line speed all weekend without knowing the cause. Comparing with other Mercedes cars, we were losing 6 km/h in the last sector and 3 km/h in the middle sector, which adds tenths to the total time.”
Despite these setbacks, Russell managed to recover and finish second, behind Charles Leclerc from Ferrari. After the race, he admitted that he needs to improve his performance to fight for the championship, acknowledging that he is 25 points behind the lead. “I am grateful to be on the podium, but less satisfied than in Canada, where I retired from the lead. If I want to fight for the championship, I need to perform better and work better with the team.”
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
