Mercedes has struggled with the brakes on the difficult Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the Brackley-based outfit’s trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has revealed.
Having jumped into the lead at the beginning, George Russell led the opening phases of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix earlier than getting unfortunate with a crimson flag interruption. The Briton made his pit cease earlier than the crimson flag which meant that he discovered himself down in P5 when the race was restarted.
Though he may overtake Lando Norris on the restart, he spent the closing stint of the 69-lap race behind the Alpine of Pierre Gasly, crossing the end line in P4.
Through the 69-lap race, Russell was heard reporting points with the brakes of his W15. Reflecting on the difficulty throughout his typical post-race evaluation, Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin famous that the Brackley-based outfit will examine the issue at its base.
“We had points with the brakes, and George was speaking about this. He mentioned it felt just like the brake discs had warped. Carbon brake discs don’t warp.
“They’re usually fairly planar, and you don’t get these points. However you may get peculiar issues taking place on the floor which means you will have increased friction in some areas.
“That may then create a vibration, and that vibration will be felt by way of the pedals. So, it could really feel just like the discs should not spherical, however virtually all the time once you test them, they’re.
“We’re not actually certain why that was the case, and that’s what we’re investigating now. These brake discs have come again to the manufacturing unit, so we will take a look at them.”
Shovlin estimated that the difficulty may have led to a lack of three tenths of a second per lap as Russell needed to be cautious underneath braking.
“Listening to different drivers’ feedback, we weren’t the one ones who have been battling both brake vibration or grabbing and George felt that it was costing him two, possibly even three tenths a lap, simply from that uncertainty of whether or not or not they’ll lock or whether or not they’ll vibrate going into the massive braking zones.”
The British engineer famous that Russell didn’t encounter any points in dry circumstances which could point out that the low temperatures throughout the race additionally contributed to the uncomfortable feeling with the brakes.
“One issue was they have been operating fairly chilly. This was within the moist circumstances.
“There are alternatives to alter the brake ducts, however as we have been into that race with none extended moist operating, we needed to estimate the place the temperatures could be.
“It might be that these very chilly temperatures on the carbon was inflicting a difficulty, so we are going to have a look at that. However within the dry, they have been completely wonderful. There’s a bit for us to research and perceive.”
F1
