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 really value him time.
The Mercedes driver was the closest challenger to pole place man Lando Norris within the closing section of SQ3, with virtually nothing separating him and his McLaren rival.
And to attempt to discover the tiny margin of time that might make the distinction ultimately, Russell elected to not raise as he had accomplished earlier than by way of the lengthy ultimate sequence of high-speed right-handed swoops close to the tip of the lap.
Nevertheless, whereas that helped him carry a bit extra pace by way 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 about up, by taking the nook with no raise, the Mercedes electronics didn’t detect that he had gone by way 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 quite than receiving a pace increase, the hybrid stayed in recharge mode – leaving him round 5km/h slower than he had been on his earlier finest effort.
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15
Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Photographs
Talking about what occurred, Russell mentioned: “I went flat by way of the excessive pace for the primary time on my ultimate lap in Q3 and confused the engine a bit of bit.
“I do not understand how a lot I misplaced, however I had a giant recharge on the exit of the nook as a result of I went by way of it flat.
“It is approach too technical for this interview, however that was a bit annoying once 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 exhibits he misplaced 0.060 seconds by the power not deploying when anticipated in that part – whereas the precise hole to Norris, ultimately, was 0.063 seconds.
Method 1 hybrid engines failing to deploy their power as a result of the methods get misplaced by drivers unexpectedly taking corners flat out is one thing that has occurred previously.
One of the vital well-known was on the 2017 Belgian Grand Prix when Fernando Alonso, then driving for McLaren, did not obtain any further hybrid energy after he took Pouhon flat in qualifying.
His Honda engine’s algorithm did not register that he had gone by way of that nook so didn’t give him the additional 160hp hybrid power increase 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 preventing Norris within the dash.
“They’re in a championship struggle,” 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 deal with qualifying as effectively, and to date, so good.”
On this article
Jonathan Noble
Method 1
George Russell
Mercedes
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