In Bahrain, George Russell’s expected pace fell short as Mercedes F1 faced overheating woes, affecting their performance significantly.
George Russell, who started third but finished fifth in Bahrain, had expected better race pace from Mercedes F1.
The Briton admitted his disappointment at the finish, especially since both W15s lost time due to managing engine overheating, costing them three to five-tenths per lap according to the team’s engineers.
“We both encountered a similar issue (with Lewis), for some reason, we had massive engine overheating, and the battery wasn’t functioning correctly. I had a great start, got to second, and then suddenly, I had these big red alarms on my steering wheel, and I had no battery. We had to cut the power, losing about four-tenths per lap just in power.”
“It’s a shame we couldn’t demonstrate the true potential of this car, so it was a bit of an odd day.”
“There’s not really anything to worry about; we just need to fit a slightly more open bodywork. Our predictions of the conditions were incorrect, so we need to navigate around this issue. But, in the end, it cost us dearly.”
“I think all teams might have five or six different cooling specifications, and we opted for our most aggressive option and clearly went too far. It was simply a bad decision; we chose the wrong bodywork for today’s conditions.”
For Lewis Hamilton, finishing seventh, the same concerns apply.
“Personally, I feel good, physically I’m fine after this first race. I think there’s a sense of disappointment within the team. I thought we would have been better today than we were. It was a close race, degradation was high, and as George said, we lost time with engine temperatures. That’s how it is.”
“There are many areas we can improve on. We were further away from the Red Bulls than we thought as well.”
“The positives before Saudi Arabia are that the car is reliable. Today, I struggled with the car’s handling. I gave it my all, but there wasn’t much performance. If I had qualified a bit better, I naturally would have been a bit higher up. It was a matter of discovering on long runs in real conditions, I learned a lot about the car.”
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