Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff explained a damaged front wing cost George Russell “20 points of downforce” in the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix.
Russell, driving in an older spec Mercedes W15, had the measure of team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the upgraded spec car for the first half of Sunday’s race.
However, in the second phase of the GP, Hamilton was able to reign in Russell and pass him to take fourth place.
Speaking to select media including Motorsport Week post-race, Wolff revealed that damage sustained to Russell’s car as he came away from his sole pit stop cost him dearly.
Could you explain why George’s front wing failed and why Lewis with the new package wasn’t able to close up faster, quicker?
“When overtaking [Oscar] Piastri out of the pits, he hit a bump,” Wolff began.
“Turbulence might have played a role and one of the main front flaps collapsed.
“So it was a tremendous loss of downforce.
“I think at a high speed it was 20 points. He then kind of drove around it very well but obviously the more your tyres are being hit the impact on lap time is exponential.”
Russell concurred with Wolff’s assessment, revealing the damage to his car made it hard to keep team-mate Hamilton at bay.
The Mercedes driver rued that it cost him “three or four tenths for the remainder of the race.
”So that made it tricky to hold onto for 40 laps.”
Mercedes struggling to find answers for George Russell and Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes has had difficulty bedding in its upgrades that were brought to the United States GP.
The car proved to be on a knife edge in Austin as Russell crashed out of qualifying and Hamilton out of the race.
Even so, the older spec car didn’t have the balance required to keep Russell out of the wall during FP2 in Mexico City.
Hamilton hopes that the battle between the two specs of the car in Mexico can give Mercedes so much needed data to improve its package.
Still, Russell’s front wing damage helps cloud that picture.
“There may be something in the update package that causes something that we don’t understand,” explained Wolff.
“Because we had two massive crashes in the same corner in Austin.
“But then we had a crash on the old car too.
“These cars are so on the knife’s edge that it will be an interesting experiment in Brazil to see whether there is a high speed instability or a low speed factor.
“I don’t think we can just extrapolate that one is better than the other.”
READ MORE: George Russell reacts to Mercedes F1 budget cap concerns
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