Mercedes has fix for George Russell’s F1 power unit software glitch

Mercedes will deploy a software fix at the Hungarian Grand Prix it hopes will cure the deployment issues that hampered George Russell’s Formula 1 car in Belgium. 

Russell was blighted by a straight-line speed discrepancy to Mercedes team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli all weekend long at Spa, leading to him qualifying more than half a second behind the Italian teenager. 

In the days between Spa and this weekend’s next round in Hungary, Mercedes believes it has uncovered why Russell was suffering more compared to Antonelli. 

Russell’s race ended in heartbreaking fashion in a first-lap tangle with Lewis Hamilton at Les Combes after he encountered a lack of power in his Mercedes which caused him to lose positions on the Kemmel Straight. 

“I’m feeling good now,” Russell told reports in Budapest on Thursday. “I think we have uncovered some of the issues that were holding us back during the weekend in Spa and that is refreshing to hear and to see the hard work that has gone on back at the factory to get to the bottom of it.”

When asked to clarify if the issue had been fixed for this weekend, Russell replied: “Yeah, we believe so… The main calibration issues that we saw, we hope - and we're pretty confident - should be fixed here.”

Mercedes identified the source of Russell’s power unit issue within its software.

“Effectively, it was numbers on a screen that were not quite calibrated properly. So it's not like the hardware is wrong or there's a problem with the hardware,” Russell explained. 

“There were two issues in Spa as well, I think. The deployment was not quite deploying optimally across the lap. We saw this with [Oscar] Piastri as well, who had a similar issue. So that was sort of one of our problems, but then on top of that, we had something separate.

“It was all linked to the same calibration being not quite right. I'm not going to say it was simply numbers on a screen, but now we know which numbers potentially were not correct.

“We can rectify that, recalibrate things, and get the power unit performing at its full potential.”

After working hard to adjust his driving style having experienced similar issues at Silverstone, Russell admitted the fix comes as a major relief.  

“It’s a huge load off my mind, but also while I'm driving, to be honest,” Russell said. 

“Throughout some laps in Silverstone and then throughout the majority of Friday and Saturday in Spa, I was thinking about how I need to drive to make the power unit fast in the straight and how I pick up the throttle, the gear usage, how early I am before throttle.

“The data was telling us that was probably the reason, but it turned out it wasn't the reason. So all of that effort over the course of three sessions trying to re-optimise my driving around a new technique was kind of for nothing. 

“So I'm looking forward now, just going into a weekend where I can just try and focus on driving fast. Focus on the simple things. I know that is when I perform at my best, but we're not in a simplistic sport, so saying 'let's just solely focus on the simple things’ is easier said than done sometimes.”

Russell also explained his outburst over team radio in Spa that made headlines. 

“At the end of the day, we're in this together and we know that what happened in Spa and saw signs of it in Silverstone, is not to the standard that we want collectively. That's not just me towards the team,” the 28-year-old Briton said. 

“Of course, when you've just been punted out of the race and you're sat in the gravel trap on lap one, your emotions are pretty high, especially with the events that led up to turn five. 

“It's never been for a lack of effort of trying to get to the bottom of what we thought was an issue. We were struggling to see the signs of where it was coming from, but Spa really gave us a great opportunity where to look for the problem. 

“When the team looked in this area, they uncovered the problem, which was great to see. These cars and these power units are so complex, you can't check every single tiny parameter, because there's just so many of them.”