Mercedes also had MGU-K concerns over Russell's car

Mercedes has revealed more about the MGU-K problems which led it to run its power units more conservatively in last weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

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Concerns over the MGU-K in George Russell’s Williams, as well as Sergio Perez’s Racing Point, prompted Mercedes to ease the strain on their power units at Yas Marina.

“There were some issues with Perez in Bahrain that ultimately caused him to stop,” said the team’s head of strategy James Vowles in a video released by Mercedes. “We also had some awareness of issues with George during the Abu Dhabi weekend.”

Mercedes missed pole position for only the second time in 2020 last weekend, but Vowles said this was not connected to their engine problems.

George Russell, Williams, Yas Marina, 2020 — Russell’s MGU-K wasn’t in top shape either

“As a precaution we decided to detune some of the power settings on the MGU-K at certain points in the weekend only. To be clear, it didn’t affect our fastest laps in qualifying. That was us pushing to the maximum. We just weren’t quick enough on the tyres.”

However it did affect their performance on Sunday, where the two W11s were unable to mount a challenge to Verstappen, who won by over 15 seconds.

“In terms of the race itself, it was the systems or a number of ways of using the K that we used a little bit more sparingly,” Vowles explained. “The performance wasn’t dramatic, it was around about a tenth per lap and it wasn’t a system that we stopped using, we just used it less than we normally would.

“It is certainly not the reason why we lost the race either in qualifying or actually on Sunday. It was just a component as to why perhaps Red Bull pulled away a little bit more than we would have liked.”

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Verstappen beat Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton to pole position by less than a tenth of a second. Vowles believes the team failed to get the best out of the softest tyre in Pirelli’s range.

“It is a tricky little tyre to get into the right window and I don’t think we were absolutely spot-on in getting it perfectly aligned with the track and the conditions,” he said. “So I think in part that was the issue, we were a little bit slower.

“In fact, on Friday we did a lap with Lewis that was removed because he went outside of track limits, but it would have been quite a bit faster than what we achieved in qualifying. That’s just evidence that we didn’t have it quite all together for qualifying itself.”

“Ultimately, I just don’t think we performed at our best,” he concluded.

2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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12 comments on “Mercedes also had MGU-K concerns over Russell’s car”

Jay
17th December 2020, 13:05

Nice sandbagging. Probably fooled a lot of people.
Pat
17th December 2020, 14:19

Unfortunately I don’t think the FIA have a way of tracking how they play with the settings on that engine but it seems like its pushing 2000 horsepower sometimes in qualifying for Lewis.
1. aezy_doc
  17th December 2020, 14:46
  
  2000hp? Hyperbole I sincerely hope!
2. MacLeod (@macleod)
  18th December 2020, 8:06
  
  Even if they got do that for 1 second they would be very happy.
Dean Franklin (@deanfranklin)
17th December 2020, 16:07

Merc still talking about this…

The championships were done and dusted, engine never to be used again I don’t know why they just didn’t turn the engine up in both cars and gamble that one of their cars would stay in the race and challenge for the lead.
1. F1oSaurus (@)
  17th December 2020, 19:10
  
  @deanfranklin Yeah unlike other teams they actually inform the viewers incredibly well with their Youtube videos on how the weekend went and why.
  1. erikje
    17th December 2020, 19:57
    
    But a bit strange the drivers did not even knew the problem and did not noticed any powerloss.
2. anon
  17th December 2020, 21:47
  
  @deanfranklin because, by your same logic, you are also saying that there is nothing for Mercedes to have gained in running the engine and MGU-K harder and simply hoping that it didn’t blow up – so, why would they bother doing that then?
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
17th December 2020, 23:39

So you can detune the MGU-K at will, as its completely different to engine mappings, right?
1. MacLeod (@macleod)
  18th December 2020, 8:12
  
  As it’s energy recovery i see several options to reduce the load of the MGU-K, just reducing energy to the battery will do wonders. Less energy recovery means less energy to deploy but the Turbo load will be much less. I think all those Mercedes in the other teams problems were the MGU-K related.
  1. MacLeod (@macleod)
    18th December 2020, 8:13
    
    So no engine remapping advantage kind of things.
    1. Bill
      19th December 2020, 11:29
      
      That’s the thing no one knows. 🤷‍♂️ What is known is the gap Lewis puts on the competition when he is really pushing.