Lewis Hamilton’s win on the British Grand Prix marked the second straight victory for Mercedes. The win for Hamilton, approaching the heels of George Russell’s shock win on the Austrian Grand Prix, aided the group’s climb nearer to Red Bull on the high of the grid.
But the day might have been higher for Mercedes, have been it not for a water system failure on Russell’s W15. The Mercedes driver was working fourth when he was instructed on Lap 33 to retire the automobile, ending any possibilities of a double podium for the Silver Arrows.
In the team’s post-race debrief, Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin famous that Mercedes had been monitoring the problem on Russell’s W15 since earlier within the race, and made the tough determination to retire his automobile to forestall additional harm — and maybe a grid penalty later within the season — from occurring.
“I imply sadly we knew that we had a problem comparatively early within the race, so we have been monitoring this from the primary stint,” said Shovlin. the water system that was inflicting the strain to begin to drift, and finally once we stopped the automobile, it was to guard the facility unit. So we knew that we have been by no means going to complete the race.
“What you don’t need to do is end the race and destroy the facility unit, then you definitely’ll be a penalty presumably later within the yr. So it was preventative, however there was no approach that we have been going to get to the checkered flag.”
Ahead of the British Grand Prix, Russell took on some new parts for his W15, together with a brand new inside combustion engine, a brand new turbocharger, a brand new motor generator unit-heat (MGU-H), and a brand new motor generator unit-kinetic (MGU-Okay). Each of these items was the third such element on Russell’s automobile this yr, one shy of the whole allotment of 4 allowed per season with out penalty.
Pushing Russell’s W15 at Silverstone to the purpose of a possible failure, the place they “destroy” the facility unit as Shovline famous, would have virtually assured a penalty later within the season. That is the scenario Max Verstappen is dealing with after the group made related modifications forward of the Austrian Grand Prix.
The determination to retire Russell’s automobile might have brought on some heartache on Sunday at Silverstone, but it surely might repay for Mercedes later this season.
