George Russell explains why he pushed to revert to previous W17 specification
)
George Russell and his Mercedes teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli will run two different specifications of the W17 during the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, with the British driver reverting to the older package.
The Silver Arrows introduced their second major upgrade package of the season at Sepang last week. However, the Brackley squad struggled for pace and were completely overshadowed by Red Bull. As a result, the team will use the Marina Bay weekend to conduct direct back-to-back comparisons between the two aero specifications.
Speaking to the media yesterday, Russell revealed that he had proposed the split-spec approach prior to Sunday's race. His subsequent DNF and an impending grid penalty for this weekend made the decision an absolute no-brainer.
"Actually, I started the conversation before the race on Sunday. After my retirement, the decision became obvious. Before that, we were 50/50, but I was leaning towards it even before the start, whereas now it makes complete sense. "There are no clear signs indicating the upgrades aren't working. We know the car we ran in Baku was the exact same spec we had in Budapest and Zandvoort. In Baku, I took pole position by eight tenths, whereas in Budapest we were four tenths off. "Those performance swings, even when neither you nor your rivals have brought updates, are huge. We're talking about a one-second swing, so we are confident that the deficit was specific to Malaysia. "Red Bull clearly outperformed their baseline from earlier in the season in Malaysia. At the same time, our race pace relative to McLaren and Ferrari was pretty much as expected. The grid penalty this weekend affords us the opportunity to step back, so I'll be driving the car I won with in Baku," Russell explained.
,fit(112:112)&format=webp)
,fit(112:112)&format=webp)
,fit(112:112)&format=webp)
,fit(112:112)&format=webp)
,fit(112:112)&format=webp)
,fit(112:112)&format=webp)