The Mercedes driver, George Russell, continues to struggle with energy deployment issues, especially after the Belgian Grand Prix where, despite adapting his driving style, he lost time compared to his teammate on the straights. The situation has been complicated, with the team unable to identify the exact causes of his speed disadvantage on demanding circuits.
During the Spa weekend, Russell experienced a clear lack of energy deployment, which limited his maximum speed. This became evident during the practice sessions and in qualifying, where his teammate Kimi Antonelli secured pole position, while Russell had to settle for fourth place.
After qualifying, Russell expressed his frustration: ‘My focus in the last hours has been straight-line speed. I’m losing speed at full throttle. I feel powerless because we don’t know what’s going on.’ This situation is not new; it was already a visible issue in the previous race at Silverstone.
The technical division of Mercedes, led by its deputy technical director Simone Resta, acknowledges that they are still in the process of understanding the factors affecting Russell’s vehicle energy deployment. According to Resta, the changes in Russell’s driving style have not been sufficient to completely solve the problem.
In addition to the deployment issues, both Mercedes cars had a difficult start at Spa, losing electrical power at the beginning of the race, which hurt Russell, who was easily overtaken by the Ferraris. This circumstance contributed to an incident with Lewis Hamilton that resulted in Russell being out of the race on the first lap.
Resta pointed out that a software error had caused both cars to reach the energy recharge limit too early, thus affecting their performance. The team hopes to resolve these issues before the next Grand Prix in Hungary.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
