Mercedes are nonetheless unclear as to what precisely occurred to George Russell’s F1 automotive throughout the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Russell turned in a superb drive to assert second place behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in Sunday’s race regardless of affected by a plethora {of electrical} gremlins which induced Mercedes’ programs to go awry.
The Briton misplaced brake-by-wire in his W16 and skilled transponder points which noticed him repeatedly vanish from the timing screens. This additionally impacted his computerized DRS activation system.
At one level Russell incorrectly activated his DRS which led to a post-race investigation, however he escaped punishment having instantly backed off the throttle as a way to shut the flap.
Mercedes crew principal Toto Wolff admitted he’s not sure whether or not the fault was theirs or a difficulty on Components One Administration’s finish.
“It has occurred earlier than again in 2018,” Wolff defined to media after the race.
“There have been examples of needing to manually override and inadvertently opening being no additional motion. It does not imply that is the case right here, however there are precedents for it.
“It opened and closed. There wasn’t any profit. The system failed and we hope it is going to be alright.
“We do not know the [cause] but. Perhaps some wiring looms within the automotive, or perhaps it was triggered by the F1 system failure and it induced our system to go bananas.”
Mercedes hail ‘unbelievable’ George Russell drive
Wolff was left impressed by Russell’s potential to fend off the quicker McLaren of Lando Norris to safe P2 whereas contending with a mess of points inside his cockpit.
“The brake-by-wire failed instantly, after which it took some time to search out the settings to type of reset it,” he mentioned.
“However we did that, after which, to be trustworthy, him managing the system coming out and in whereas having Norris behind him. It is simply an unbelievable drive, to be trustworthy.
“What he did right this moment. He secured this podium on high of that. Taking the smooth for such a very long time was additionally created between managing after which attacking when he wanted to.
“And I feel it is in all probability whoever, if you have not pushed a race automotive that has a BBW or standard brake, it is like on a highway automotive when the ability assisted steering fails.
“After which think about you must modify between one nook having it and the following one not having it, that was simply an excellent ability.”
Wolff confirmed that Russell misplaced brake-by-wire, GPS, on-board and DRS.
“I feel on the sprint we did not have all of the issues that we anticipated,” he added.
“We additionally feared that we might lose the entire sprint, which might have meant no buttons, no methods to run any of the settings and clearly he had it within the shift lights, and he had it behind his thoughts and it did not take his focus away.”
