Mercedes engineer director admits troublesome issues plauging them

16:57, 28 Jul

Updated: 17:45, 28 Jul

bySavannah Lenz

Mercedes' Trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovelin, admitted that Mercedes did not have many opportunities for improvement during the Belgian Grand Prix.

After the Belgian Grand Prix, Shovelin spoke to GPBlog and others about George Russell and Kimi Antonelli’s race. He said, “If you look at what Lewis [Hamilton] did, where he went onto the dry tyre lap earlier, it looks like we were a bit conservative in that cross. That's about the only place that there was any opportunity in the race to have finished further up.”

Mercedes misses out due to pace

“But our focus is more on car pace, why we weren't able to perform better yesterday, why we weren't quicker in the race because we were dropping back from Max and Charles there was you know some opportunity in the race, but that's not where the team's going to be focused over the next few days.”

Russell started sixth and ended fifth, having overtaken Alex Albon for the position. Antonelli started from the pit lane and finished the race in 16th.

After being asked if it was a fair statement to suggest Mercedes were struggling with balance, Shovelin replied, “Well, that's what we need to understand.”

“What we had early on in the year was a car that was working well at pretty much every circuit. We were generally fighting for the second row of the grid, if not the front row. It's probably true for anyone that the TD won't improve stability, but we did have this wing was on the car in Montreal and it was fine.”

Russell went on to win the Canadian Grand Prix, taking home his first win of the reason.

George Russell driving the W16 at the Austrian Grand Prix

He continued, “The fact is, other people are able to balance their cars a bit better. There's no doubt a solution in there for us, but as I said, we're just looking at all the steps that we've changed on, taken with the car design over the last number of races.”

“It isn't just the front wing that's changed, and I'm sure there's more that we can learn, and as I said, that's what the focus is on over the next few races, trying to pinpoint why we're getting this entry stability issue."

Shovelin concluded, "I'd say, as another point, that TD on the front wing might take you in the wrong direction, but the fact is, when we've dropped aero balance out of the car, the instability is still there. So as I said, there's something for us to learn.”