As well as being a fantastic film starring Jim Carrey, A Series of Unfortunate Events would fit perfectly as the epilogue to George Russell’s odyssey in Belgium, in the race that sent the entire Formula 1 World Championship caravan on holiday. Thanks to the driver’s good sense and the group of Mercedes strategists who made him run against the clock – he planned to make just one pit stop when the rest of the pack made two – the boy from Norfolk found himself, against all odds, in the best position to celebrate the third victory of his career. In fact, Russell even managed to uncork the champagne from the top step of the podium at Spa, a couple of hours before receiving one of the hardest blows, sportingly speaking, of his life.
The weigh-in of the car after the Grand Prix showed a weight of 1.5 kilos below the minimum weight of 798 kilos required by the regulations. Despite listening to Mercedes’ arguments, the stewards were quick to disqualify him and declare Lewis Hamilton, his neighbour in the Silver Arrows’ workshop, the winner.
In Belgium, most people could only explain what happened as a miscalculation that someone at the Brackley team (Great Britain) might have made. But if the car started the race within the parameters stipulated by the regulations, what made it cross the finish line weighing 796.5 kilos when the minimum required is 798?
Before the cars returned to the track on Friday in the Netherlands, the summer break gave Mercedes plenty of time to explain what caused the calamity. And the conclusion is that it was not just one factor, but a combination of three. What kept the W15 from achieving the minimum weight was the loss of mass from the tyres, due to wear; from the belly of the car, as a result of rubbing against the ground, especially in the compression of the mythical Eau Rouge corner; and also from Russell himself, due to sweat.
“I could already sense before the start that I was a bit more fit than usual. But it was too late to make any substantial changes without forcing myself to eat a steak or something similar. That wouldn’t have been the best way to approach the pre-race routine,” explained Russell, already from the Netherlands. “But there are things that, from now on, with the advantage that what happened gives you, we can do better,” added the driver. “The car can lose a lot of weight during the race,” says Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ chief track engineer. “There is wear on the compounds, on the planks – on the belly of the car – the brakes, as well as oil consumption. The driver himself can lose a lot of weight. And in this particular race, George lost quite a bit,” continues the Liverpool technician.
At this point, it is logical to wonder how no one in the Stuttgart manufacturer’s engineering battalion could have foreseen what would happen. Well, because of the exceptional circumstances that coincided that Sunday in Belgium, especially for Russell. Firstly, because making a single stop meant that his tyres arrived at the end with less rubber than, for example, Hamilton’s. And at the same time because the ambient temperature remained above 20 degrees Celsius at all times, which made the rider lose more fluid. As Russell himself said, in the message he left on his Instagram profile after learning that one of his hardest-earned victories had been taken away from him, he left “everything on the track.” More literal, impossible.
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