Mercedes chief admits changes needed after Lewis Hamilton and George Russell CLASH

Mercedes

1 reactie

Mercedes chief admits changes needed after Hamilton and Russell CLASH

A dramatic qualifying saw the Hamilton and Russell collide to prevent the latter from making it through to Q3

Joe Ellis

Saturday 10 June 2023 16:57

Mercedes engineer Andrew Shovlin has finally shed light on the team's crash in qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix, after he admitted that the team need to "change their communication" as a result of the incident.

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were both trying to find a slipstream down the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya's long start/finish straight but found themselves virtually on top of each other.

Hamilton had the double-tow behind Russell and a slowing Ferrari but when he pulled out to overtake his team-mate, the two cars came together.

Article continues under video

The seven-time champion was able to make it through to Q3 anyway but Russell missed out on his chance of making the top 10.

It proved immaterial in the end as they finished second and third in the race, some distance behind eventual winner Max Verstappen.

Toto Wolff will have needed to speak to both drivers after the surprising collision in qualifying

Communicaton needs to change

“The drivers were trying to find a car finishing a lap in order to get a slingshot starting the lap themselves so that will give them more straight-line speed," Shovlin said to Mercedes' YouTube channel.

”You can find around a tenth maybe a little bit more on the straight. That car that was finishing then peels in and they can then conduct the rest of the lapping clear air.

”Now the issue again put very simply was that George and Lewis both tried to pick up Sainz as that slingshot so Lewis got onto the back of him around turn ten as he then came round to start the lap George was waiting because he knew that Sainz was coming not realising that Lewis was just behind.

”At the racetrack in Barcelona, we were very keen to make sure we focused on the race itself [and] not worry about what went wrong in qualifying but now that we're back here at the factory we'll sit down we'll look at how we need to change our communication to make sure that we don't confuse the drivers by not giving them the whole picture.”