“We are a step behind our rivals,” George Russell takes a grim view of where Mercedes stack up against its rivals
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George Russell
Mercedes are preparing for another successful year and to lay claim to their 9th Consecutive Constructors title in the 2022 Formula One championship. The Silver Arrows have been known for underplaying their role in the competition. The team caused another stir after unveiling their unique and highly debated sidepod design for the Pre-season testing in Bahrain.
George Russell, who will serve his first season with Mercedes, is sceptical of his team ahead of the first race of the season and says the team still have a lot to learn to “unlock” their performance. He seemed to struggle in the pre-season testing Bahrain after the team bought new upgrades.
Despite completing 198 laps during the Bahrain test, the Briton says the effects of porpoising damped their performance. Russell says the team is working hard to solve it but at the given moment are a “step behind” rivals at Red Bull and Ferrari.
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George Russell says Mercedes have a lot of work to do
In a recent debrief, Mercedes rookie George Russell, 7-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton and trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin shared their views on the performance of the W-13. Russell stated that the team have a lot to do before the race to “understand the car.”
George Russell said “We got through our programme with few reliability issues so great from that perspective. We were trying to get every last bit of performance out of the car and push the limits and when you’re doing that, you’re bouncing around a lot! It’s not the most comfortable but I don’t really care about comfort as long as the performance is there.”
He added “At the moment, we seem a step behind our rivals and we have a lot of work to do between now and next week to better understand the car. There’s a lot of potential in the W13 and I believe our guys are going to get to the bottom of it, we just need to find a way to unlock our performance. The bouncing is affecting our ability to put the car in the right window and the team are working incredibly hard to find solutions for this.”
Mercedes will be hoping to begin their calendar with a win in the Bahrain GP and podium place for both drivers. The first race weekend begins on Friday, March 18 with the practice session with the main race taking place on Sunday, March 20.
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Tejas Venkatesh
(366 Articles Published)