Although the Mercedes found the podium again in Canada, with Lewis Hamilton, cannot be said to be equally satisfied with the outcome of George Russell's race. The young English driver had to retire from the race with about 15 laps to go Canadian Grand Prix, obtaining his second DNF of the season. After hitting the barriers in the initial stages of the race, Russell was called back to the pits. The first time, to replace the wing and change tires. The second, several laps later, for the final retirement. Initially the retreat was seen as a consequence of the strong impact with the wall. Russell immediately spoke of a specific problem with the brakes. The definitive answer came a few days later, from Mercedes headquarters and from Mike Elliott, chief technical officer of the star team.
Elliott confirms the brake problem
Russell lost control of the car after hitting the curb in turn 8. The impact was violent but the Englishman's race, after checks, continued until he moved up to the points zone.
“At the start of the race, I think George had a great stint on the tyres. He was managing his tires well and we were starting to see the pace for him as we approached the end of the stint. Unfortunately, he hit the curb at Turn 8; this was enough to cause him to lose control of the car and cause him to lose the rear end and then crash on the exit of Turn 9. As you can see from the video, he suffered a lot of damage: he damaged the front wing, broke the rear wheel and therefore got a puncture, which led us to call him back to the pits."
However, lap after lap the engineers noticed anomalies on George's W14. The problem that prevented Russell's ascent, as Mike Elliott also confirms, concerned the brakes, and was partly exacerbated by the accident that occurred at the beginning of the Grand Prix which had a negative impact on the balance of the single-seater.
An inevitable retreat
“The retirement was caused by brake wear. On a circuit like the Canadian one you push the brakes a lot, there are a lot of important braking stops and in the telemetry data we saw that the brake wear on George's car was getting out of control. We also understood that he wouldn't have made it to the end of the race if he continued like that. We also understood that when he was in traffic, behind a train of single-seaters with DRS activated, having to overtake them he would not have succeeded in his aim. This was because he couldn't handle the brakes and, unfortunately, we were forced to retire him."
"When an accident of that magnitude occurs, the car always breaks down. It is no longer perfectly balanced as one would like. George had to deal with this situation for the rest of the race, until we asked him to withdraw."
Source statements: Motorsport.com
