Russell explains why Mercedes took Spa upgrade off W15

George Russell has detailed exactly why Mercedes opted to remove the floor upgrades it brought to the Belgian Grand Prix ahead of qualifying.

The W15 was armed with a minor floor upgrade heading into the Spa weekend, but heading into qualifying, both Russell and Lewis Hamilton had the parts removed from their W15 machines. 

Hamilton would go onto qualify in fourth with Russell seventh, although both will move up one spot after Max Verstappen's grid penalty.

Spa has been a track of trouble for Mercedes in the ground-effects era, with Russell explaining how this was part of the decision to take the upgrades off.

"We've struggled here for the last three years, and the fluctuation of all the teams from circuit to circuit is pretty substantial," he told media including RacingNews365. 

"It was important for us to revert back to something we know to see if it is a challenge for Spa for us, which I am pretty confident it is, as opposed to an upgrade problem.

"The upgrades were nothing substantial, it is just part of the development of the course of the year, and it gives us time to review the data and go from there, but I am pretty confident the upgrades are working as expected.

"It's been three years in a row that we've been very quick at Silverstone and struggled at Spa. 

"On paper, you'd say they're not exactly the same type of circuit, but have high and low speed corners, and we need to try and understand [why we struggle at Spa]. 

"There seems to be something inherent in the cars at certain circuits, like Red Bull always fly here, and this is always probably their strongest circuit of the season along with Austria.

"For us, Silverstone and Barcelona are the sort of circuits we tend to go very well at, so we need to understand that."

Russell's qualifying

As for his qualifying, Russell felt seventh on pure pace but sixth on the grid following Verstappen's penalty, a result he felt was fair.

"P7 was a fair result, it was definitely not easy out there or our finest session," he said. 

"But it was a fair result, and to be fair, it was quite close from P3 to P8, and I am pretty confident that Max is going to come through very quickly."