Mercedes explain strange reason for ‘extreme’ Russell failure

Mercedes has explained how George Russell’s front-wing failed in Mexico City, in what it calls “extreme” circumstances.

For most of the race, Russell was carrying a broken-front-wing around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with the front-left flap broken and not in its usual position.

Despite the loss of load, Russell finished in fifth-place just behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton after a thrilling late battle, as the team revealed how it had been caused by an overtaking attempt the Briton was making on the pit-straight.

“We had some rather convenient footage from the TV that showed exactly what happened,” explained trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin. 

“He was lining up for an overtaking manoeuvre that caused him to have to run towards the middle of the track. There is a big bump there and he hit that at full speed. 

“When you have the DRS, the car is going quicker because you have got less drag but you have also lost a lot of load off the rear wing, which then lets the front wing push down further into the road.

“The car is running extremely low, the bib had a big hit on that bump, and just the shock loading of that was enough to cause that flap to fail. 

“Now we need to make sure that does not happen again. The car should be able to survive that, but it was quite an extreme case.”

How Russell managed

Russell carried the damage through his late race battle with Lewis Hamilton over fourth place, with Shovlin detailing the effects of the broken wing.

“We were quite lucky in that the flap did not fall off, that can sometimes happen if you have crashed into someone,” he added.

“All that happened was it dropped down to its minimum position meaning he lost a lot of aero balance from the car.

“It was safe to keep running in that condition, but it meant that he had a lot of understeer, and he was then having to drive around that problem. 

“He did a really good job because early on we were not sure whether he would need to come in later on and change the wing, but it turned out he was able to minimise the lap time loss, so we could then keep him out and just run to the finish.”