In Miami, Mercedes F1 settles for 7th and 8th places as George Russell sheds light on the ongoing difficulties with the W15.
No miracles for Mercedes F1 in qualifying; the team remains the 4th strongest on the grid in terms of pure one-lap performance in Miami, notably ahead of Aston Martin F1 this time.
George Russell secured the 7th fastest time in the session, ahead of his teammate. He is not surprised and explains why.
“This is our place. The fact is the stopwatch doesn’t lie. We know that some of the changes we made since the end of last year may have been overcompensated by some of the development elements we’ve implemented.”
“We now have limits with the car, which are completely different from what we had 12 months ago. We have so much work to do to solve the problems. We’ve gone too far in this direction. We know we need to improve. We need to improve quickly.”
Mercedes introduced a significant upgrade package for this weekend, which included a new floor, with other updates planned for Imola.
Russell remains adamant that Mercedes knows how to turn the situation around, but it will not happen quickly.
“We really know how to do it. When we look at the data, we understand why we are in the current position. As I said last year, we understood why we found ourselves in the same situation.”
“I think, unfortunately, we have overcompensated to solve last year’s problems. We’ve gone from one extreme to the other now, so we need to go back and find ourselves in a transition.”
“In development, when new improvements take eight weeks to be brought to the car, you learn about the problem during the first race, the second race, you can’t just bring an upgrade to the next race.”
Looking ahead to tomorrow’s race, Russell remains confident of making a step forward.
“I expect to be impatient tomorrow, pushing the cars in front of me, and I hope there won’t be any pressure from behind. 7th and 8th, we also have to accept that this is where we are right now.”
“We are a step behind McLaren and Ferrari, a big step behind Red Bull. I think today’s result was the maximum. I am convinced that we will make a step forward tomorrow.”
Lewis Hamilton was thus 8th, just 40 milliseconds behind his young compatriot.
“The track temperature was quite similar throughout, and the track grip was really good.”
“These tires are very sensitive. Trying to get the tires to work and deliver the maximum potential is something we are struggling with.”
“Then, we had this glimmer of hope in Q2, and then in Q3, we were nowhere.”
“Overall, the day was much better than yesterday. We made progress in the sprint and then in qualifying, getting into Q3 was positive.”
“Q3 was just not really great, but I am grateful to have made it.”
“For us, being 0.8 seconds off is tough. We are fighting against Haas and I really don’t know if that’s the true speed of our car or if it’s the tires.”
“I think there are a lot of things with these tires that we are struggling with… we haven’t been able to use them well since the start of the year.”
Mercedes F1 Settles for 7th and 8th on Miami Grid. Mercedes F1 Settles for 7th and 8th on Miami Grid.
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