George Russell is “confident” that the new floor run by Mercedes at Zandvoort wasn’t behind the team’s struggles in the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix.
Mercedes ran an upgrade spec floor, a vital component to F1’s ground effect machines, at Zandvoort, but after a run of three wins in four races ahead of the summer break, encountered a reality check in the Netherlands.
Russell led the qualifying effort at Zandvoort, taking fourth on the grid, with Lewis Hamilton being dumped out of Q2 and the Mercedes duo could only muster seventh and eighth on race day, behind rivals McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari.
The Briton’s slip down the field from fourth to seventh came amid poor tyre wear through the second phase of the Grand Prix, prompting Russell to pit for a second time in a one-stop dominated race.
“In Zandvoort, we definitely underachieved,” Russell said.
“We had a number of ideas why that was. I think it was a very challenging weekend with really strong winds. It was a very old tarmac, a lot of sliding around.
“I hope and expect this week to be slightly more positive after the learnings we took from Zandvoort.
“It was one of the changes we made to the car that we knew was not quite in the direction we wanted to go. But it wasn’t quite that obvious in the moment during the race weekend.
“It was only afterwards when we did the analysis, that’s the area where we lost out. We need to avoid that at all costs and move forward.”
Moving forward to the Italian GP, Russell noted how the difference between Monza and Zandvoort presents another chance for Mercedes to learn more about its new floor.
It’s thanks to the different characteristics between circuits and the fluctuating pace from race to race across the top teams, that Russell believed Mercedes’ new floor wasn’t the main contributor to its difficult Zandvoort outing.
“This weekend will be another good opportunity to test it [the new floor],” Russell said.
“Ultimately, when you bring an upgrade to the car, you’re talking a tenth or two maximum.
“But the performance can swing by a number of tenths from race to race.
“If you have an off-weekend which coincides with an upgrade, it’s very quick to say, ‘it must be the upgrade.’ But if you do six races in a row with the same package, your performance can fluctuate by half a second compared to your rivals.
“I’m confident the floor is working as we expect. The problems we faced weren’t due to the upgrade.”
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