Mercedes reveals brake issues in Brazil

Mercedes has struggled with the brakes at the challenging Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the Brackley-based outfit's trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has revealed.

Having jumped into the lead at the start, George Russell led the opening stages of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix before getting unlucky with a red flag interruption. The Briton made his pit stop before the red flag which meant that he found himself down in P5 when the race was restarted.

Although he could overtake Lando Norris at the restart, he spent the closing stint of the 69-lap race behind the Alpine of Pierre Gasly, crossing the finish line in P4.

During the 69-lap race, Russell was heard reporting issues with the brakes of his W15. Reflecting on the issue during his usual post-race analysis, Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin noted that the Brackley-based outfit will investigate the problem at its base.

“We had issues with the brakes, and George was talking about this. He said it felt like the brake discs had warped. Carbon brake discs do not warp.

“They are generally pretty planar, and you do not get those issues. But you can get peculiar things happening on the surface that means you have higher friction in some areas.

“That can then create a vibration, and that vibration can be felt through the pedals. So, it may feel like the discs are not round, but almost always when you check them, they are.

“We are not really sure why that was the case, and that is what we are investigating now. Those brake discs have come back to the factory, so we can have a look at them.”

Shovlin estimated that the issue could have led to a loss of three tenths of a second per lap as Russell had to be cautious under braking.

“Hearing other drivers’ comments, we were not the only ones who were struggling with either brake vibration or grabbing and George felt that it was costing him two, maybe even three tenths a lap, just from that uncertainty of whether or not they are going to lock or whether they are going to vibrate going into the big braking zones.”

The British engineer noted that Russell did not encounter any issues in dry conditions which might indicate that the low temperatures during the race also contributed to the uncomfortable feeling with the brakes.

“One factor was they were running quite cold. This was in the wet conditions.

“There are opportunities to change the brake ducts, but as we were into that race without any prolonged wet running, we had to estimate where the temperatures would be.

“It may be that those very cold temperatures on the carbon was causing an issue, so we will look at that. But in the dry, they were absolutely fine. There is a bit for us to investigate and understand.”