Mercedes
Russell misplaced plenty of tyre life combating Norris in the beginning, and pitted very early because of this. That triggered a flurry of stops from others, which wound up closely influencing the race. He was picked off by Leclerc in these stops, however then recovered some locations by not stopping beneath the late Security Automobile. He managed to carry on regardless of these a lot older tyres to come back house within the factors. That Security Automobile was triggered by Antonelli stopping out on observe with a throttle drawback. He’d been having a enjoyable race, defending exhausting from Hamilton for a lot of it earlier than dropping again with each Mercedes drivers struggling on the mediums right now.
George Russell, seventh
“At the moment was difficult and, clearly, P7 will not be the place we wish to be. I struggled with the rear finish of the automobile from the start and was not capable of get into rhythm. With a comparatively excessive observe temperature, we had been affected by overheating on the rear axle. It was due to this fact powerful to maintain the tyres in the fitting window and the tempo mirrored that. We couldn’t match the leaders’ tempo, so it was very a lot injury limitation.
“We’ll take the learnings from this weekend and transfer shortly on to Monaco. I’m trying ahead to getting out on observe there. We’ve been good and constant in qualifying this season with robust single laps and this may assist subsequent week. Monaco is one in all these races the place quite a bit is dependent upon Saturday and I’m assured in how we are able to carry out there.”
Kimi Antonelli, DNF
“At the moment was a disappointing approach to finish my first house Grand Prix. You by no means wish to have a DNF however for it to come back right here at Imola is much more bitter. That stated, I’ll treasure the reminiscence of this weekend. The assist from the followers has been unimaginable. They saved cheering for me each lap, regardless of the struggles with our efficiency.
“Sadly, we simply didn’t have the tempo to battle for the highest 5 right now. I made begin regardless of being on the Laborious compound, however the velocity within the automobile wasn’t there to maneuver ahead after that. I defended actually exhausting in that first stint and managed to maintain Lewis (Hamilton) behind me. We took benefit of the Digital Security Automobile to make our cease however after that, I began to have a problem with the throttle. I began to lose energy on the straights and each lap it was getting worse earlier than we needed to retire the automobile. Now we have the chance to bounce again right away in Monaco so we are going to take the learnings from right here and apply them to subsequent weekend.”
Bradley Lord, Group Consultant
“That was comfortably our most tough Grand Prix of the season thus far. To come back away with P7 and a DNF is much under the requirements we set ourselves as a workforce.
“From the early laps, George reported an absence of rear stability, and he struggled to maintain the rear tyre temperatures beneath management, which led to accelerated degradation. This pressured us into an early cease, and onto a two-stop technique. He made his second cease beneath the VSC for Esteban’s retirement, and had battled his manner again into the factors when the Security Automobile was known as out for Kimi’s DNF. It was clear that we might stay on observe throughout this, and George then battled exhausting to the flag – he was unable to carry off Lewis’s fresher-tyred Ferrari behind however then was capable of maintain place to the end.
“For Kimi, we ran an offset technique, beginning on the exhausting tyre and making up a place in the beginning. He was working solidly after we took benefit of the VSC to swap to the Medium tyre and tried to take this to the end. Kimi managed the stint nicely however then started to endure a degrading throttle drawback, which in the end stopped the automobile on lap 45 – the primary retirement of his F1 profession.
“General, the efficiency image was a sobering one right now: whereas George certified strongly, we had been unable to race the automobiles round us and suffered a major tempo limitation from tyre overheating on the rear axle. The first focus of labor within the days forward to know why we suffered so badly, after which to profit from the chance we have now to bounce again subsequent weekend in Monaco.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
“At the moment was a tough day for the workforce and drivers. We weren’t fast sufficient to problem on the entrance and, to make issues worse, suffered a reliability failure
“We’re working to know the problems on Kimi’s automobile, however the throttle pedal was regularly deteriorating and finally the system switched off for security. That drawback is unlikely to be too difficult to resolve in time for Monaco fortunately.
“Our larger concern is across the tempo. It has been one other scorching race, and we had been giving the rear tyres an excessive amount of of a tough time. We due to this fact suffered from poor grip and degradation all through. We have got to get on high of that shortly as there are plenty of scorching races arising and we will not proceed to carry out at this stage. We have got a number of days to regroup earlier than Monaco, however we’ll be working exhausting to attempt to enhance from right here.”
