George Russell admits Mercedes are clueless on what is wrong with W15

The Mercedes W15 is getting slower as the race weekend progresses and it's a major issue to solve for the team.

Toto Wolff, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton (Via IMAGO)

After the pre-season testing that was held in Bahrain ahead of the F1 season opener, there was a lot of positive affirmation within Mercedes in regard to their performance. Moreover, Technical Head James Allison had also said the car is finally a lot more predictable and stable. Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton also agreed to this and felt that the car had a better overall performance window.

But, after the results that the German Manufacturer has achieved in the first two Grand Prix’s of the season, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, the positivity seems to have reduced. It started with the cooling issues in Bahrain wherein the team was losing up to four tenths per lap. During the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the team had an even worse result, with a P6 from George Russell and a P9 from seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.

We’re still really trying to understand this car because we have shown true performance at points over the last two weekends…We need to understand why that is, but it’s fine margins now. It’s so close between ourselves, McLaren and Aston, and Charles [Leclerc, Ferrari] is just a smidge ahead, we just need to tap into a bit more.

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Russell said: (H&T: Motorspor s tsweek).

Russell also admitted that the issues seem to be very deeply rooted into the car. The Mercedes star clearly looked a little frustrated as he was unable to catch up to two-time world champion Fernando Alonso in his Aston Martin. In the end, the Mercedes Driver was 21 seconds off the podium.

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James Allison’s gives his verdict on the problems with W15

Mercedes Technical Director James Allison added the following statement in regard to the cooling issues that Mercedes faced in Bahrain and why they weren’t sure about the cause of it even during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix-

Lewis Hamilton and James Allison (Via IMAGO)

We’d already run this cooling level loads of times in winter testing, we’d already run these power levels in winter testing as well as free practice The fact that we got it wrong by more than 1 or 2° is extremely unusual and quite punishing because once the cars are above the limit.

Allison said.

Although it isn’t recommended to draw conclusions after 2 races, it seems Mercedes are on the back foot again for the third year in a row. It would be interesting see when and how the iconic German Manufacturers can turn it around throughout the remainder of the season and challenge Max Verstappen.