George Russell believes Monaco’s unique track could help Mercedes overcome their W15’s balance issues, providing a competitive edge this weekend.
This week, James Allison explained that Mercedes F1’s problem this year is making the W15 perform well in different types of corners. George Russell supports his technical director’s statements and hopes that the winding nature of the Monaco circuit might benefit his team.
“We have known since the start of the season that we struggle to balance high and low speeds,” confirms Russell. “We can be very competitive at low speed and have difficulties at high speed, or vice versa. Therefore, we hope that with relatively consistent cornering speeds on this circuit, we will be a bit more competitive.”
Russell, however, assures that the difficulties in balancing slow and fast corners have already improved compared to the beginning of the season: “The car is definitely more balanced over the whole lap now.
“We had a lot of trouble at the beginning balancing high and low-speed corners, and I think we have made progress. When you look at the gap to Red Bull, when you look at the gap to the rest of the midfield, we have progressed.”
“But I think it’s fair to say that Ferrari and McLaren have progressed at the same rate. So, we need to keep working hard, bringing these improvements to the car. The whole team is working tirelessly at the moment to bring these enhancements as quickly as possible.”
However, tuning the car won’t be Russell and Mercedes’ only challenge: “Monaco is a real challenge; there are so many disruptions throughout the weekend that timing is crucial. The track evolves so much, becoming faster, often up to three seconds quicker in qualifying than in practice.”
“Even if you have a good Friday, you need to be ready to adapt for Saturday. We saw it today; I was in the engineering meeting, and it was bright and sunny, then I went out, and it was pouring rain. This could add a bit of spice to the situation.”
Monaco: Russell’s Hope for Mercedes Revival. Monaco: Russell’s Hope for Mercedes Revival.
- You may also like>Norris, Piastri Target Victory
- Following us on Facebook and Twitter
