F1 News
What went wrong with Russell's car at Silverstone?
Where Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton were ecstatic after their victory at the British Grand Prix, George Russell slowly disappeared with a painful DNF at Silverstone. On Saturday, the Briton still managed to secure pole position at his home circuit, but during the race he had to abandon the battle due to a problem in his car. Meanwhile, technical director Andrew Shovlin explained the problem with Russell's W15.
Water system leak proved fatal for Russell
"I mean unfortunately we knew that we had an issue relatively early in the race, so we were tracking this from the first stint," Shovlin said in Mercedes' debrief after the British GP. "We didn't know that it was going to be terminal, but it's all linked to a leak that was in the water system that was causing the pressure to start to drift, and ultimately when we stopped the car, it was to protect the power unit. So we knew that we were never going to finish the race. What you don't want to do is finish the race and destroy the power unit, then you would be looking at a penalty possibly later in the year. So it was preventative, but there was no way that we were going to get to the chequered flag," Shovlin said.
Could Russell have won the race?
After the race, it was all about Hamilton winning his last home race with Mercedes. But would all this have happened if Russell had not crashed out? "With a race like that, with the changing conditions, it's quite hard to say this is where we would have finished," Shovlin admitted honestly. "If it had been a dry race start to finish, looking at how George got off the line, how he was able to build a gap, I think he would have had a pretty straightforward afternoon."
Where Hamilton feels like a fish out of water at Silverstone with no fewer than nine wins in total, Russell is yet to find his feet at his home ground. The 26-year-old Briton has yet to manage a single podium finish.
This article was written in collaboration with Sophia Crothall.