© Jiri Krenek for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Mercedes Motorsport Strategy Director James Vowles explains what the team was doing during the Belgian Grand Prix stoppage and how they were preparing for the eventual “restart”.
The Belgian Grand Prix has been delayed for more than three hours due to heavy rain, before it was “restarted” for two laps behind the Safety Car.
In Mercedes’ “race” debrief James Vowles explained what the team was doing during the delay.
“It is an interesting question because it developed quite organically across that period,” Vowles said.
“For the first delayed start we were only given 5 minutes’ worth of warning and 5 minutes warning means that we simply have to remain exactly in position as we would normally.
“The tyres have to be bolted to the car, the driver has to be in the car and all of us have to be prepared for the fact the race can get going and 5 minutes is barely enough time to get everything in order.
“Once the delay goes up to 10 minutes, it might feel as though that provides us enough time but it isn’t. The wheels still have to be bolted to the car and ready to go.
“The gazebos and all of the coverings that you saw on the track have to be moved out of the way at around about seven minutes to go.
“What it actually means is that every time when you saw it happening, we just got the notification as we were clearing off the grid and had to put everything back in place again.
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“So, ten minutes was just on the limit to the window where really everyone had to remain prepared.
“Once the sessions kept getting delayed more and more and we were given a higher time scale we were able to let some of the guys go and warm-up, for example.
“I remember some using some of the heat guns in order to dry off their shoes because it was quite wet out there.”
The Briton then explained what himself, team boss Toto Wolff, drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, as well as other team higher-ups were doing.
“In the case of ourselves, we stayed predominantly on the pit wall for certainly the first few hours, then migrated to the truck when we knew we had a half an hour window.
“Lewis was in there, Valtteri was in there and Toto was in there as well and we were able to have just a short catch-up and brief over what could happen going forward, review together the regulations to understand what was going to happen with the weather forecast, and just really align the team again without being outside in the cold.”
“But in these conditions, you are pretty much remaining race ready throughout. As you saw with the final bit of notice we were given ten minutes to get ready and if we were elsewhere or unprepared at that point you simply couldn’t get the car leaving in that period of time.
“Ten minutes is just enough time to get the driver to the car, bolted in and get ready to go,” concluded Vowles.
