Mercedes did not understand: 'Why was George the only one bothered by rain?'
F1 News
It was the misunderstanding of the weekend: George Russell was initially convinced during the Spanish Grand Prix that it was starting to rain. It was only after some time and a lot of puzzled looks at the Mercedes pit wall later that it turned out the Briton was mistaking his own sweat on the inside of his helmet for raindrops.
In hindsight, it was a funny moment. During the race, when teams really don't want to leave anything to chance, it was not yet possible to laugh heartily about it. In Mercedes' pit box and at the factory in England, all sorts of scenarios were immediately considered, in case the rain continued. Only there was one detail: apart from Russell, nobody saw that rain.
Shovlin was surprised
"Well, at first, we were quite puzzled," Andrew Shovlin, the team's technical man, looks back at Mercedes' debriefing. "We wouldn’t have expected it in turn five and we couldn’t see anything on the radar. He was asking again, saying that it was still light, and it was quite good that he managed to work this one out for himself. If he hadn’t told us that it was actually drops of sweat on his visor, I think we would have been still puzzled working out where this rain had come from and why it was only George that was noticing it and none of the other drivers."
In the end, Russell finished third, one place behind teammate Lewis Hamilton. Shovlin was happy that his team was once again a factor in a Grand Prix. The updates introduced seemed to be working, promising something for the next race in Canada. However, Shovlin is emphatically holding back.
'Fighting with Ferrari, Aston Martin and Alpine'
"I think it will be in line of some of the earlier races where we were definitely in the bunch with Ferrari, with Aston, and now Alpine look to have joined that group. But it's great racing there. It will be good fun and we are certainly going to be fighting to find every little bit of performance we can because the way the grid stacks up now you can be P2 or you can be P10, and there are only a few tenths in it. We are looking forward to more exciting racing but certainly we are aware that Canada is likely to be a bigger challenge than the Sunday we just had in Barcelona," Shovlin said.