Scorching on the heels of a disappointing weekend for the Brackley-based outfit, Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has admitted that it was all about “injury limitation” for the German-British squad on the Spa-Francorchamps race.
Mercedes endured a tricky weekend on the Belgian Grand Prix. George Russell endured an early exit in dash qualifying, and was unable to make any actual progress, ending the 100km sprint pointless.
The Briton then went on to qualify in a distant sixth place on Saturday earlier than making little progress within the race to complete fifth, greater than half a minute down on race winner Oscar Piastri.
His team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli suffered a shock SQ1/Q1 exit within the dash and the usual qualifying session.
Though the Italian appeared pretty aggressive on damp floor, he was unable to make large progress, and a tactical transfer to pit for a second time backfired, and noticed Antonelli wound up outdoors the factors in sixteenth.
Reflecting on the Brackley-based outfit’s exhibiting at Spa-Francorchamps, Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director, Andrew Shovlin famous: “This has been a tricky weekend for us right here in Spa. We haven’t had good tempo all through, so right now’s race was very a lot about injury limitation.
“George maximised his outcome with P5, making the most of having a decrease downforce set-up to go the Williams of Alex Albon within the closing phases. From there, it was a lonely race for him to the flag.
“For Kimi, he opted for the next downforce moist set-up which offered dividends within the early phases on the damp circuit. Sadly, as we transitioned to slicks, his tempo benefit over automobiles forward was negated by a scarcity of straight-line pace. We rolled the cube with the two-stop technique, however factors wouldn’t have been achievable no matter we did.
“After a difficult weekend right here in Belgium, it’s good to get again on observe subsequent weekend in Budapest. We’ll spend the approaching days analysing this weekend and ensuring we supply the learnings into our working on the Hungaroring.
“Hopefully we are able to go into the summer season break with a extra optimistic outcome than we have now managed right here in Spa,” concluded Shovlin.
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