“We saw the job we did,” George Russell’s maiden pole in Hungary justifies his move to Mercedes
George Russell
George Russell’s move to Mercedes this year was questioned much after the team had failed to perform during the start of the season. The domination that Mercedes had since the past 7 years had come to an end, and George was finishing mid-grid while Hamilton just kept struggling for even longer. The main issue that the team was facing was the violent bouncing of the car on the straights which made them lose a lot of time, and also impacted the drivers physiologically if they pushed too hard. This problem even saw Lewis Hamilton being knocked out of Q1 during qualifying.
Watch: Pole Position, Double Podium & More | 2022 Hungarian GP Akkodis F1 Race Debrief
However, as the season passed by, the team made progress through immense data and upgrades. They were slowly and steadily adapting to the new aerodynamics and the ‘ground effect’ that has been re-introduced in the sport, and upgrading in the right direction was making the W13 go significantly faster. Due to the same, Russell was able to score his maiden pole position in Hungary, right before the season break. The immense performance of the two Silver Arrows showed how much they have developed, and they are pretty much back to fighting for the wins.
George Russell states that changing the concept isn’t helpful
When Russell was asked about his qualifying result and race pace, he seemed to be quite happy with it. According to the Briton, changing the concept of the car wasn’t making them go any faster, on the contrary, it made them slower. He believes that sticking with the team and progressing in the right direction is definitely the right choice, as we saw them improve during the first half of the season.
“We saw with the job we did [in qualifying], you saw with the pace that both of us showed [in the race],” Autosport quoted him;
“At the start of the season we were finishing races a minute behind first position. The last two races we’ve been within 10 seconds, so I think it’s definitely going in the right direction,” he concluded.
According to the Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, the data from practice sessions in France and Hungary, and the troubles that the team faced, has helped them in improving so much. In Hungary, Lewis finished P2 and Russell finished right behind him, making it the second double podium finish for the team.
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Gunaditya Tripathi
(274 Articles Published)