Shovlin admits Mercedes pursued "damage limitation" at Spa
Hot on the heels of a disappointing weekend for the Brackley-based outfit, Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has admitted that it was all about "damage limitation" for the German-British squad at the Spa-Francorchamps race.
Mercedes endured a tough weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix. George Russell endured an early exit in sprint qualifying, and was unable to make any real progress, ending the 100km dash pointless.
The Briton then went on to qualify in a distant sixth place on Saturday before making little progress in the race to finish fifth, more than half a minute down on race winner Oscar Piastri.
His team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli suffered a shock SQ1/Q1 exit in the sprint and the standard qualifying session.
Although the Italian looked fairly competitive on damp surface, he was unable to make huge progress, and a tactical move to pit for a second time backfired, and saw Antonelli wound up outside the points in 16th.
Reflecting on the Brackley-based outfit's showing at Spa-Francorchamps, Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director, Andrew Shovlin noted: "This has been a tough weekend for us here in Spa. We haven’t had good pace throughout, so today’s race was very much about damage limitation.
"George maximised his result with P5, taking advantage of having a lower downforce set-up to pass the Williams of Alex Albon in the closing stages. From there, it was a lonely race for him to the flag.
"For Kimi, he opted for a higher downforce wet set-up which provided dividends in the early stages on the damp circuit. Sadly, as we transitioned to slicks, his pace advantage over cars ahead was negated by a lack of straight-line speed. We rolled the dice with the two-stop strategy, but points would not have been achievable whatever we did.
"After a challenging weekend here in Belgium, it is good to get back on track next weekend in Budapest. We will spend the coming days analysing this weekend and making sure we carry the learnings into our running at the Hungaroring.
"Hopefully we can go into the summer break with a more positive result than we have managed here in Spa," concluded Shovlin.
