How Russell “confused” his engine in bid for Qatar F1 sprint pole

George Russell has revealed how a last-gasp effort to take Losail’s daunting Turn 14 flat out in sprint qualifying “confused” his engine and actually cost him time.

The Mercedes driver was the closest challenger to pole position man Lando Norris in the closing segment of SQ3, with almost nothing separating him and his McLaren rival.

And to try to find the tiny margin of time that could make the difference in the end, Russell elected not to lift as he had done before through the long final sequence of high-speed right-handed swoops near the end of the lap.

However, while that helped him carry a bit more speed through the turn, it bizarrely triggered a freak set of circumstances because it meant the extra energy deployment that should have helped power him along the next straight was not activated.

That was because, with the way the system is set up, by taking the corner without a lift, the Mercedes electronics did not detect that he had gone through the turn – so did not know it had to unleash the extra hybrid power as it thought he was still on the previous straight.

It meant that rather than receiving a speed boost, the hybrid stayed in recharge mode – leaving him around 5km/h slower than he had been on his previous best effort.

George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Speaking about what happened, Russell said: “I went flat through the high speed for the first time on my final lap in Q3 and confused the engine a little bit.

“I don’t know how much I lost, but I had a big recharge on the exit of the corner because I went through it flat.

“It’s way too technical for this interview, but that was a bit annoying when I just nailed it and then I lost a load of speed on the exit. But I think Lando was just a smidge out of reach.”

GPS analysis of Russell’s lap compared to when the energy was deployed properly shows he lost 0.060 seconds by the energy not deploying when expected in that section – whereas the actual gap to Norris, in the end, was 0.063 seconds.

Formula 1 hybrid engines failing to deploy their energy because the systems get lost by drivers unexpectedly taking corners flat out is something that has happened in the past.

One of the most famous was at the 2017 Belgian Grand Prix when Fernando Alonso, then driving for McLaren, failed to receive any extra hybrid power after he took Pouhon flat in qualifying.

His Honda engine’s algorithm failed to register that he had gone through that corner so did not give him the extra 160hp hybrid energy boost between Turn 11 (the exit of Double Gauche) and Turn 12 (the entry of the Fagnes Chicane).

Alonso claimed at the time that that had cost him half a second, which prompted him to abandon his lap.

Despite the frustration of the qualifying lap, Russell has high hopes for his chances of fighting Norris in the sprint.

“They’re in a championship fight,” he said. “We’ve got nothing to lose. We’re going for the big results.

“We’ll try and make a good start. Of course, the sprint is just a sprint. We need to put our focus on qualifying as well, and so far, so good.”