At the Mexico City Grand Prix, the Mercedes drivers’ cars were not identical: George Russell crashed his W15 at the start of the second practice on Friday, but the team did not have modernized versions of the underbody, forcing them to return to the old one, used in Miami.
Mercedes chief racing engineer Andrew Shovlin explained how useful it was for the team to compare the two versions of this vital aerodynamic component. He also explained how the damage sustained during the Grand Prix affected the behavior of Russell’s W15.
Andrew Shovlin: “We were certainly able to obtain useful information because we were confident that the series of technical updates worked as we expected. We measured the magnitude of the loads and pressure levels on the aerodynamic surfaces. Based on our data, everything worked fine.
After this, the hope was that we would be able to get more complete information during the race if the cars were on a clear track. Lewis started well, ahead of George, but in the first segment he had problems with his balance, which we were able to correct at the pit stop, but now George was in front, and in a car with a damaged front wing.
Both cars spent a significant part of the distance in traffic, which always affects the accuracy of the analysis, but I repeat: the data we were able to obtain was useful and the new products performed about as we expected.
But in Brazil we plan to continue collecting information, and I hope we can complete enough laps there to fully assess the effectiveness of the new products.
If we talk about the nature of the damage to George’s car, it was received under the following circumstances: during the Mexico City Grand Prix he was preparing for the next overtaking, for which he had to move to the center of the track , but there was a large bump on the asphalt, which he drove into at full speed.
When you use the DRS system, the car can go faster,
but the rear wing generates much less downforce, causing the front wing to fall closer to the track surface. At that moment the car hit a bump and the impact was so strong that the adjustable plane of the front wing broke.
Now we must work to prevent a recurrence of this problem, even though this case can be considered extreme. However, we were lucky that this element did not fall off, although this cannot be ruled out in the event of an accident, if the car collides with something. But in Mexico City the adjustable element simply dropped to the minimum position and the balance of George’s car became much worse.
It was safe to continue the race, but his W15 began to exhibit severe understeer and he had to take measures to compensate for this in some way. George did a great job, kept his time loss to a minimum and kept driving towards the finish.”
As a result, on the 66th lap of the race, Hamilton again managed to get ahead of Russell, and the Mercedes drivers finished in 4th and 5th place, with George losing around 4 seconds to his teammate.
Source: F1 News

I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.