George Russell has revealed how a last-gasp effort to take Losail’s daunting Flip 14 flat out in dash qualifying “confused” his engine and truly value him time.
The Mercedes driver was the closest challenger to pole place man Lando Norris within the closing phase of SQ3, with virtually nothing separating him and his McLaren rival.
And to attempt to discover the tiny margin of time that would make the distinction in the long run, Russell elected to not elevate as he had completed earlier than by means of the lengthy last sequence of high-speed right-handed swoops close to the top of the lap.
Nevertheless, whereas that helped him carry a bit extra pace by means of the flip, it bizarrely triggered a freak set of circumstances as a result of it meant the additional power deployment that ought to have helped energy him alongside the following straight was not activated.
That was as a result of, with the way in which the system is ready up, by taking the nook and not using a elevate, the Mercedes electronics didn’t detect that he had gone by means of the flip – so didn’t understand it needed to unleash the additional hybrid energy because it thought he was nonetheless on the earlier straight.
It meant that fairly than receiving a pace enhance, the hybrid stayed in recharge mode – leaving him round 5km/h slower than he had been on his earlier greatest effort.
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15
Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Photographs
Talking about what occurred, Russell mentioned: “I went flat by means of the excessive pace for the primary time on my last lap in Q3 and confused the engine just a little bit.
“I do not know the way a lot I misplaced, however I had an enormous recharge on the exit of the nook as a result of I went by means of it flat.
“It is means too technical for this interview, however that was a bit annoying after I simply nailed it after which I misplaced a load of pace on the exit. However I believe Lando was only a smidge out of attain.”
GPS evaluation of Russell’s lap in comparison with when the power was deployed correctly reveals he misplaced 0.060 seconds by the power not deploying when anticipated in that part – whereas the precise hole to Norris, in the long run, was 0.063 seconds.
System 1 hybrid engines failing to deploy their power as a result of the techniques get misplaced by drivers unexpectedly taking corners flat out is one thing that has occurred previously.
One of the well-known was on the 2017 Belgian Grand Prix when Fernando Alonso, then driving for McLaren, did not obtain any additional hybrid energy after he took Pouhon flat in qualifying.
His Honda engine’s algorithm did not register that he had gone by means of that nook so didn’t give him the additional 160hp hybrid power enhance between Flip 11 (the exit of Double Gauche) and Flip 12 (the entry of the Fagnes Chicane).
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Alonso claimed on the time that that had value him half a second, which prompted him to desert his lap.
Regardless of the frustration of the qualifying lap, Russell has excessive hopes for his probabilities of combating Norris within the dash.
“They’re in a championship combat,” he mentioned. “We have got nothing to lose. We’re going for the massive outcomes.
“We’ll try to make a superb begin. After all, the dash is only a dash. We have to put our concentrate on qualifying as effectively, and to this point, so good.”
On this article
Jonathan Noble
System 1
George Russell
Mercedes
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