George Russell is certain that Mercedes’ setback at Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix is down to circuit characteristics rather than the upgrades it brought this weekend.
Mercedes entered the latest race harbouring ambitions that the high-speed track configuration and cooler conditions would elevate it closer to McLaren and Red Bull.
However, Mercedes struggled throughout the drier opening practice sessions, prompting the team to abandon running the revised floor that it introduced at this event.
The anticipated rain descending improved the marque’s prospects as Lewis Hamilton wound up fourth, less than a tenth down on second and inheriting pole position.
Russell, who qualified down in seventh position, denied the turnaround that will see his team-mate lead the second row was down to reverting to a previous-spec part.
Asked whether he thinks the removed development provided an answer to Mercedes’ overnight step, Russell replied: “No, no, no, no.
“We’ve struggled here the last three years and the fluctuation in performance of all the teams circuit to circuit is pretty substantial.
“I think it was important for us to revert to something we know and see in the race tomorrow if it’s a challenge with Spa for us, which I’m pretty confident it is, as opposed to the upgrades.
“So, you know, the upgrades were nothing substantial.
“It’s just sort of part of the development of the course of the year and it gives us time now to review all the data from yesterday.
“And then go from there, but I’m pretty confident those upgrades were working as expected.”
Russell has contended that Mercedes has sustained a relative drop in competitiveness compared to other tracks at Spa-Francorchamps across the ground effect era.
“It’s been three years in a row that we’ve been very quick in Silverstone. Obviously, this season, exceptionally quick, and struggled in Spa,” he acknowledged.
“And on paper, you’d say, you know, we’re not exactly the same at the circuit, but it has high-speed here, a bit of low-speed same as Silverstone.
“We need to try and understand why that is. You know, there seems to be something inherent in the cars that work at certain circuits.
“You know, Red Bull are always lightning, as an example. This is always probably their strongest circuit in the season, along with Austria.
“And for us Silverstone, you know, Barcelona, they’re the sort of circuits that we tend to go very well at as well. So, yeah, we need to understand that.”
The Briton is certain the intrinsic issue is not down to the ride height Mercedes is running as Spa demands a similar set-up configuration to Silverstone, where it won.
“I don’t think it’s ride height, because in terms of the range of ride height you go through, here in Spa, it’s very similar to what you experience in Silverstone,” he said.
“So, yeah, I don’t think it’s that. It’s obviously very tricky to place the car in the right position with how much bottoming you have through Eau Rouge.
“So, you know, it sort of dictates your ride height based on Eau Rouge. So, yeah, we need to assess what it is.”
Russell has warned that Mercedes will regress in the race on a drier track, but is hopeful that the higher-than-anticipated degradation will create added opportunities.
“I’m pretty confident he’s going to improve very quickly,” Russell stated when asked about Verstappen, who qualified fastest but has taken on a 10-place grid demotion.
“But saying that, yesterday was the most amount of deg we’ve seen all season on a Friday. And, you know, for some people it looks like it may need to be a three-stop.
“But you could nurse those tyres, you know, one and a half seconds, two seconds off your pace. And maybe you can do a one-stop, who knows?
“But if you do that, you might be very slow as well.
“So, for sure, we’re not looking in the strongest position ahead of tomorrow. But I do think there’s a lot of opportunity with how much deg there is.”
