🚨 The team has made deployment software modifications ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix to help address a problem it found deep in the code on George’s car in Belgium.
- Toto Wolff had explained that analysis by the team had uncovered an unspecified problem on Russell’s engine that had contributed to a lack of deployment on the final run.
- The problem that George faced in qualifying was related to an element deep in the code on his power unit that meant his deployment was being front-loaded around the lap.
- This meant that, as part of the adjustments that are made by the algorithms to manage energy around the lap, it was more biased to using extra energy on the run to Les Combes.
- This, allied to some differences in how he and Antonelli then impacted harvesting and battery usage around the middle sector, meant he was short of power for the run to the final chicane.
- Having uncovered the issue in the code that got exposed in Belgium, Mercedes has put countermeasures in place from this weekend to try to make sure that there are no repeat problems.
- The team has also got to the bottom of what went wrong on the opening lap as well, with both Russell and Antonelli lacking deployment on the run to Les Combes.
- The issue was triggered by a software error, meaning that neither car harvested as much energy as anticipated on the entry to La Source.
- Then, with extra battery power being drained on the way out of the hairpin to help fill in a gap for turbo lag, it meant neither driver had the energy they had hoped for on the run down the Kemmel Straight.
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