Crutch and car winning in the same race

(Motorsport-Total.com) – George Russell inherited the podium for Mercedes at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after third and fourth place Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz crashed on the penultimate lap. Third place is more than just a great performance after the Silver Arrows' performance on Sunday, where the W15 had no pace at all, especially early in the race.

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George Russell puzzled by Mercedes pace in Baku

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While Lewis Hamilton, who had to start from the pits due to an engine change, was unable to make any significant progress, Russell struggled in the leading group to keep up with the pace of Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull. However, Mercedes' pace was surprisingly strong again towards the end of the race.

“We were very slow in the first stint,” Russell said. “I was about a second and a half slower than Charles for most of the laps. That was all quite disastrous. But then in the last 20 laps of the race we were a second faster than Piastri and Charles and three or four tenths faster than Max, Carlos and Checo, so I’m confused as to why that was, and the only difference was the change from the yellow tyre to the white tyre.”

Advantage of experience? Mercedes with a choice of replacement tires in Baku

Use of data Our technology partner PACETEQ We took another close look at the Mercedes lap times. On average, Russell was 1.027 seconds slower per lap than Charles Leclerc at the front in the first stint on the mediums. In the second stint on the hards, that was just 0.018 seconds per lap. After the tyre change, the Briton lost almost no time to get to the top.

On Friday, Mercedes was the only team to do a long run on the C3 hard tyres. To this end, a simulation of a race on the mediums was introduced. At Ferrari, the tyre choice was the exact opposite, and you can see that the Scuderia performed much better on the medium C4 than on the hard model. Is it all just a matter of training experience?

“Not really, to be honest,” Russell said. “On Friday practice… the track was really dirty this weekend, and on Friday I was about three seconds off the pace, so I didn’t contribute anything.” However, Mercedes were the fastest team on average over long distances on Friday.

Mercedes Engineer: Why didn't the method work?

“We have to understand what happened in the race because in the last stint we had a car that was absolutely capable of winning this race,” Russell continued. “And in the first stint we had a car that probably didn't deserve to be in the top 10. The only difference was the tyres.”

“We're not the only team talking about this. It's very frustrating for all of us sometimes when you don't understand the fluctuations in performance between the first quarter and the second quarter or from one period to the next. Yes, it's a challenge.”

Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes' chief engineer on the track, has an explanation for why the medium didn't work at all for Mercedes: “The first stint was poor for both drivers. We couldn't stop the rear tyres from overheating and at one point it looked like we were going to have a very difficult afternoon.”

“The hard tyres suited us better. George had the freedom to figure out how to get the most out of the tyres and keep them in a good window. That helped him a lot later in the race. We lost a lot of time early on and couldn’t keep up with the leaders, but it was good to get past Verstappen – that was crucial for the podium.”

On the other hand, Shovlin does not want to be too happy either: “It would have been nice to have a car on the podium, but let's not fool ourselves: this weekend was not good enough and we have to improve.”

Toto Wolff: Mercedes still off the pace

Another amazing fact. Lando Norris drove the fastest laps of the race while wearing the new media at the end of the Grand Prix. However, the fastest lap was set by another driver, Russell, who used the same strategy as Oscar Piastri or Charles Leclerc, and therefore had no tyre advantage. His lap was also more than four tenths faster than the fastest lap of the two ahead of him.

Team boss Toto Wolff added: “I think it’s difficult when you’re on the train and fighting for position, but clearly our car is not good enough. The balance is not good enough to be able to really keep up. Under that we struggled.”

“And the second stint was really amazing. It was tough at the beginning. But once the car got back on track because George drove it the way it was supposed to be driven. I mean we were the fastest car at times.”

At times, Mercedes wondered if they could catch up with the early battle: “We joked during the race that they would cut back now, but they didn’t,” said Wolff. “They chased each other so much that there was a chance they would just push the tyre to the ground.”

“In the end, Piastri and Leclerc's pace was of course too far for us because they completely destroyed the tyre and they were still fast and we couldn't do that. But there is still a lot to learn and hopefully we can apply it in Singapore.”