George Russell has been dealt a significant blow ahead of today’s US Grand Prix, with Mercedes opting to breach parc fermé regulations to repair his heavily damaged W15, which automatically implies a pitlane start for the Briton.
Russell crashed in the closing minutes of Saturday’s qualifying at the Circuit of the Americas while attempting to improve his position on the grid. A violent snap at the entry of Turn 19 sent the W15 off course and into the outside barriers.
Russell emerged unscathed from the impact but his car’s right side suffered significant damage. The mishap also destroyed a new upgrade package that Mercedes had introduced for the weekend.
With no spare parts available for the new components, the team faced a difficult decision.
While Lewis Hamilton offered to swap his upgrades with Russell, allowing the latter to start from his sixth-place qualifying position, Mercedes deemed this impractical due to the extensive workload involved in making the changes to both cars.
Instead, the team opted to revert Russell's car to the previous specification that had been used up until the Singapore Grand Prix. However, this proved to be a complex task, requiring more time than was available under normal parc fermé rules.
To complete the necessary work, Mercedes kept the parc fermé covers off Russell's car overnight, which is a violation of the regulations. As a result, the team was forced to accept a pit lane start for their British driver.
"We had to work on the car overnight during the car's covered period,” the Brackely squad explained in a statement. "The workload involved in that was due to reverting on specification to what we ran in Singapore."
Russell's pit lane start compounds Mercedes' challenges for the United States Grand Prix, as both he and Hamilton are now starting well down the order. The seven-time world champion is set to launch his race from 17th on the grid.
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