Mercedes’ Director of trackside engineering, Andrew Shovlin, revealed that there was a slight difference in the setup of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell’s car at the Imola GP. The British engineer believes the setup was not a factor in the difference in performance between the two but a lot of other factors during the race.
Speaking to Motorsport Network about the difference in setups on both cars, the Mercedes engineer said:
“[It was] a slight difference but not so much as it will change the way the cars are behaving, We’ve just got Lewis on a slightly lower level than George. But you’re just talking a couple of kph on the straights. ”
While there was a difference in setup between the two Mercedes cars, Shovlin believes it didn’t contribute to much in terms of km/h on the straights. The Briton revealed that Hamilton had different factors in the race that made it a frustrating weekend.
Describing Hamilton’s performance in the team debrief, Shovlin said:
“Lewis has had a tough weekend from start to finish through no fault of his own. The start was OK and he’d moved up to eleventh after Daniel and Carlos tangled but we got undercut on the transition by a couple of cars, lost a bit of time with a slow stop and then to Esteban who was released into Lewis’s path as they left the pits.” “The next 44 laps were very frustrating as he was stuck in a DRS train and it was impossible to get through. We know where we are on performance right now and we know where we need to get to.”
Mercedes are positive about fixing the problems on the car
The Mercedes head of trackside engineering revealed that they have many issues is with their car and are racing against time to fix them. Toto Wolff has revealed that their extreme porpoising made the car undriveable at Imola, while Hamilton called it a weekend to forget. The Briton has already ruled himself out of the driver’s championship after the last race.
Looking ahead at the next two races, Shovlin said:
“There are a couple of major issues with the car that if we can fix, we can find a lot of that gap quite quickly but time is getting critical now and we need to move forward in the next two races if we are to keep the leaders within any kind of reach this year.”
George crosses the line in P4 to salvage points from a difficult weekend for the team.
George crosses the line in P4 to salvage points from a difficult weekend for the team. https://t.co/jV0YRCVV7s
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While Russell’s performances have been consistent, Hamilton’s inconsistent performances are being heavily criticized. Mercedes are currently third in the championship standings in the constructors standings.
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