George Russell has changed race engineers ahead of his second season driving for Mercedes.
Riccardo Musconi, who was Russell’s engineer last year, has moved to a new role within the race team at Mercedes, RaceFans understands. He oversaw Russell’s breakthrough grand prix victory in the penultimate race of last season at Interlagos.Marcus Dudley will act as race engineer for Russell during 2023. He was previously the team’s performance engineer and has acted as a substitute race engineer when required.
Dudley substituted for Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer Peter Bonnington at the Austrian Grand Prix last year. He previously performed the same role at the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix.
Russell will therefore have his third different race engineer in as many seasons. He joined Mercedes from Williams in 2021, when his regular engineer was James Urwin.
Before Russell joined the team, Musconi was race engineer for Valtteri Bottas, a role he took over in 2019.
Russell enjoyed a successful first season at Mercedes, taking two grand prix pole positions and a sprint race win alongside his first grand prix victory. He finished fourth in the championship, out-scoring Hamilton by 25 points.
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Qeki (@qeki)
27th February 2023, 11:46
It shouldn’t change much but if the chemistry won’t work then it can be bad.
elchinero (@elchinero)
27th February 2023, 16:02
“if the chemistry won’t work” — needs a chemist, not an engineer
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
27th February 2023, 19:13
I think the most important skill for a drivers Race Engineer is the ability to tell his driver –
“You’re not allowed to win this one …. but we will make it up to you later in the season”
– and sound like it’s true.