According to George Russell, he and Mercedes have found the cause of the problems: The software calibration was holding him back—adjusting his driving style was of no use
George Russell believes that he and Mercedes have identified the cause of his recent problems in Formula 1—and that he no longer needs to focus on adjusting his driving style to get the most out of his car.
The Briton recently had a disastrous weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, where he was half a second behind his teammate Kimi Antonelli in qualifying and ended up in the gravel trap during the race after a collision with Lewis Hamilton at Turn 5.
Prior to his retirement, Russell’s battery had run out on the Kemmel Straight, catching him off guard as he approached the Les Combes corner combination. Although it wasn’t broadcast on TV, the radio communication that surfaced revealed Russell’s frustration with his car’s charge level.
In previous races, Russell had tried to adjust his driving style to keep up with Antonelli more consistently. But as he now says, the data from Spa showed that this wasn’t the problem at all.
“Well, basically there were readings on the screen that weren’t quite calibrated correctly,” Russell explains. “So it’s not that there’s something wrong with the hardware or that there’s a problem with the parts. But at Spa, there were two additional issues.”
“I think the power delivery wasn’t quite optimal over the entire lap. We saw that with Piastri as well, who had a similar problem. So that was one of my issues,” he says.
“But beyond that, we had something else as well. It was all related to the fact that the same calibration wasn’t quite right. I don’t want to oversimplify by just talking about numbers on a screen, but we now know which values were potentially incorrect.”
“We can fix this, recalibrate things, and restore the engine to its full potential,” he promises.
Russell says that discovering the calibration issue was a huge relief, since he had constantly been having to think about his inputs behind the wheel; Mercedes had concluded, based on data from previous races, that it was due to his driving style.
For Hungary, Russell believes he can now drive more naturally again and “focus on the simple things”—and he feels that his previous attempts to adjust his driving style were ultimately in vain.
“Yes, that’s a huge weight off my mind,” he says, “but honestly, it’s also a relief when it comes to the driving itself. Because during a few laps at Silverstone and then for most of Friday and Saturday at Spa, I was thinking about how I needed to drive to make the engine fast on the straights—how I apply the throttle, which gear I choose, how early I prepare to accelerate.”
“The data told us that was probably the reason, but it turned out it wasn’t. So all that effort over three sessions to re-optimize my driving around a new setup was, in a sense, for nothing,” said Russell.
“I’m now looking forward to a weekend where I can just try to focus on going fast and concentrate on the simple things.”
“I know that’s when I perform at my best. But we’re not in a simple sport, so sometimes it’s easier said than done to just focus on the simple things.”
