F1 Q&A: Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in race incidents, George Russell and Mercedes power issue

Why is Mercedes having trouble understanding George Russell’s straightaway deficit? They need to have all the data on battery usage, internal combustion engine output, e-motor power, as well as how much drag the aero and vehicle layout produces, such as lean angle – Sean

At the Belgian Grand Prix, Mercedes encountered unexplained behavior in the power unit.

Russell suffered for this as he experienced a mysterious lack of energy in qualifying. This cost him some, but not all, of the deficit against teammate Kimi Antonelli. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said that the loss caused by the engine was approximately 0.2-0.25 seconds.

Regarding Lando Norris, much the same thing happened with Oscar Piastri at McLaren.

Both drivers suffered a lack of energy on the first lap, resulting in Russell being passed by Hamilton and Antonelli by Max Verstappen on the approach to Eau Rouge.

As Wolff said: “There was a lack of energy in all the Mercedes engines in Turn 1, and it didn’t just affect George. It affected him more than Kimi, but Kimi also had this problem to a certain degree.”

Wolff said the issue in the race was a “new issue.”

Mercedes said they did not understand why either situation occurred.

The main problem is that the latest F1 hybrid engines, as well as the rules under which they must be run, are quite complex and manufacturers and teams are still learning about them.

One effect of this is that small nuances in driving can have a disproportionately large impact on energy availability. This is one of the reasons why drivers do not like these engines.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, one of the sport’s best technical communicators, has spoken extensively on this topic this season.

“To run these power units, you don’t run them in an open loop way, so I can have an offline simulation and say, ‘Oh, this is how the electrical power will be distributed and it will always be the same as itself,'” he said in Spa at the weekend.

“There’s a big control unit component that drives the power unit, which is done by live calculations, and the power unit is thinking ahead, calculating forward, what it needs to do. A lot of things are happening as the car moves forward.

“Therefore, it is not so easy to understand what kind of calculations are being made while the vehicle is driving.

“I am sure that we will understand the reason, but at the same time you need to be able to predict and make sure that the operation of the power unit is developing as expected.”

“Because it’s not just about the influence it has in areas where power is limited, [and] not only on the straights, but also because it affects the braking points.

“Because if you have additional harvest before braking, you approach braking 10 km/h slower and your braking point changes.

“This is very difficult for drivers to master and this is one of the reasons why they talk about the difficulties of using the power unit from a driving perspective.”

“The aim of this is not only to get the most out of the power unit, but also because changes in the power unit also affect the references when approaching the bend.”

“But the significant changes are so small that they can happen from one round to the next, even if you’ve learned from previous rounds.”

This complexity also explains why McLaren have been frustrated with some aspects of their relationship with Mercedes this season, particularly how much information they are given about the operation of the engine.

As Stella says: “It is only now, and we are in the middle of the season, that we are starting to have the necessary tools to be able to predict, optimize and examine these sensitivities.”