“The car was fighting itself,” Lewis Hamilton and George Russell blame Mercedes W14 for poor Austrian GP
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell need a consistent car during the 2023 F1 season.
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George Russell and Lewis Hamilton (Credits: IMAGO)
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have finished the Austrian GP in a disappointing P7 and P8 position. The duo, after the race, has left their frustration known and has ripped into the lackluster W14. Both the Brits believe that there are certain tracks where the Mercedes car is just not able to hand with the front runners.
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell came into the Austrian GP after strong performances. Still, because the track layout of the Red Bull ring was different in comparison to previous races, the W14 did not have the firepower to help the Mercedes duo in posing a challenge against the top teams.
Both are extremely disappointed with the W14’s performance at the Red Bull Ring, and while talking about it, Russell said, “For sure it’s another step in the right direction. As we said, it’s clearly circuit dependent at the moment because we were nowhere here, and with the same car we were good in Canada and we were fast in Barcelona.”
Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, added, “This track just highlighted some areas for us to work on, and yea, not the greatest of days. McLaren, well Lando, did a great job today, they were super quick, wasn’t expecting them to be as fast as they were but we weren’t expecting to be as slow as we were so. The car was fighting itself. I was mostly frustrated with the car, it was slow.”
Lewis Hamilton and Co. have to sort out their act fast
The 2023 Formula 1 season is now ten rounds down, and the way things have panned out for the Mercedes team so far, it is clear that the W14 is a hit on some tracks and massively flops on some of the other ones. This is the Brackley-based team’s Achilles heel this year, and Toto Wolff and Co. have to fix it as soon as possible.
While the Red Bull F1 team is pretty much out of the reach of the other F1 outfits, Mercedes is currently engulfed in an extremely tight battle with Ferrari and the Silverstone-based Aston Martin Formula 1 team. All three teams are very close to each other in the standings, and the upcoming races are going to crucial for all three teams.
The ongoing Formula 1 campaign has still got 14 races remaining on the calendar and it is going to be all about improving the car as much as possible for the Mercedes F1 team. Next up is the British Grand Prix, and considering that Russell has shown optimism around the event, would the Mercedes drivers be able to score podiums in Silverstone?
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Rishabh Negi
(3244 Articles Published)