Mercedes split W17 aero packages for Russell and Antonelli at Singapore GP
Mercedes to run two specs in Singapore after Sepang struggles
Mercedes will field its two W17s with completely different aero packages for the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, with George Russell reverting to the older specification he used to win in Baku and Kimi Antonelli continuing with the upgrade first seen in Sepang.
The decision follows an inconclusive introduction of Mercedes’ first big upgrade since May at last week’s Malaysian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen dominated Sepang for Red Bull’s first win of the season, while Antonelli finished second and Russell was on course for the podium before retiring with five laps to go and a power-unit failure.
Russell said he first raised the split-spec idea before Sepang and the engine failure made it a "no-brainer".
"Well, actually, I instigated the conversation prior to the race on Sunday," revealed Russell, who slipped a season-high 84 points behind team-mate Antonelli after dropping out of third place with five laps to go at Sepang. "So when the failure happened, it was kind of a no-brainer because we were kind of 50-50 about it pre-race."
The older package is the one Russell used to win in Azerbaijan two races ago and which Antonelli used to win in Madrid. Russell will race that Baku-spec W17 in Singapore while Antonelli keeps the new parts.
"It is back!" said Russell of the Baku-spec W17. "Obviously, Malaysia was the worst weekend of the year for us as a team in terms of pace, qualifying result."
New front wing for Antonelli
Antonelli’s car will also run a front wing in Singapore that was originally intended to accompany the Sepang upgrade. The team missed the wing in Malaysia.
"I hope the upgrade that is on Kimi's side works as we expect, because as a team, we need that to be the case, and it would be slightly concerning for us if the new package we had in Malaysia is not working as we expected," Russell said.
"We have a front wing this weekend that Kimi's running that we didn't have in Malaysia. The package was meant to come with the front wing - maybe that was a reason why it wasn't working so well."
Antonelli confirmed he is committed to the new package for the whole Sprint weekend with no option to revert mid-event.
"George is going back on the old package, which we know works really well, especially on these kind of tracks. On my side we will try to find and answer for this package and hopefully we will understand it more and finally extract the potential of the package."
He added: "We really want to understand this new package and try to strike the maximum out of it because the team has done a tremendous job."
Engine penalty limits Russell
Russell will start at the back of Sunday’s main race grid because of a power-unit change after last Sunday’s failure. He will run a fresh unit all weekend but it will not include the ADUO Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities upgrade Mercedes are developing for a later race.
"We were waiting to take the engine penalty with the ADUO update but obviously unfortunately we've had to take it here," Russell said. "But with seven races remaining, that's longer than the engines are designed for. Unfortunately it means I'll be taking another penalty at some point between the next race and the end of the season."
The team sees the penalty as an opportunity for a clean comparison. Russell noted the performance swings of the previous spec: "We know the car we had in Baku was the same car as we had in Budapest and Zandvoort, and in Baku we were on pole by eight-tenths, and in Budapest, we were four-tenths off the pace."
Antonelli believes Sepang was an outlier due to rough tarmac and 60-plus degree track temperatures, and that Singapore’s cooler conditions and low-speed layout will be more representative for testing the update.
Sprint weekend action starts Friday with Practice at 9.30am and Sprint Qualifying at 1.30pm UK, live on Sky Sports F1.