George Russell explains the Mercedes car issue that could’ve resulted in humiliation at the hands of Daniel Ricciardo in the Mexican GP

Russell calls upon the brake issue that allegedly ruined the Briton's race end at the Mexican GP..

George Russell explains the Mercedes car issue that could’ve resulted in humiliation at the hands of Daniel Ricciardo in the Mexican GP

George Russell and Daniel Ricciardo (Via IMAGO)

The Mercedes driver George Russell seemed to explain his car’s brake’s overheating issue after the Mexican GP. The Briton expressed that he couldn’t make any good improvements at the near end of the race and barely finished ahead of the AlphaTauri of Daniel Ricciardo. It was due to struggling with tire temperature caused by the overheating of the brakes.

After the race restarted, following the red flag caused by Kevin Magnussen‘s accident, the Mercedes driver seemed to have no pace whatsoever. He fell short of the charging McLaren of Lando Norris and couldn’t pressurize Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. Russell barely finished above the very confident Ricciardo but still fell short of 27s from his teammate Lewis Hamilton. He finished in sixth position as his teammate celebrated a P2 podium.

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In an after-race interview reported by MotorsportWeek, he pointed out that he lost the race for top-5 against Sainz because he failed to execute an overtake on the Ferrari. He was asked to back off at the end of the race to cool the brakes. But it backfired on the driver himself, as he lost tire temperature. Russell later coined this race as “miserable” and believes he was very lucky to finish in P6.

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It was just a race dictated by tires once again. The car felt strong, but behind Carlos, I just couldn’t quite make the overtake. It’s never fun when you’re on the defending driver on the back foot. I really struggled throughout the race with the tires, and as soon as I backed off, I lost all the grip and saw Daniel attacking

George Russell’s hopes for this year’s Brazillian GP being the defending race winner

As the F1 calendar moves to Sao Paulo for the Brazillian GP, the last year’s winner has high hopes for his return. Russell believes Brazil has always been kind to Mercedes and hopes it remains the same. He asks for a decent weekend after a tough Mexican GP.

George Russell (via IMAGO)

”As the former winner of the track, Russell might enjoy the coming weekend if he puts out his performance like last year.

We were strong here last year, qualified on the front row. We probably should have had two cars on the podium last year but will try to do it this year.

The Sao Paulo GP is in the third of the triple header after the Austin and Mexican GP. The race is scheduled to take place next weekend, on 5 November, before the final two races of the 2023 season.

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