Mercedes F1 endured a frustrating race at Zandvoort, with Russell puzzled by his car’s performance and Hamilton’s pace only enough for a disappointing eighth place finish.
George Russell, after starting the race from 4th on the grid at Zandvoort, finished only in 7th place with his Mercedes F1.
The Briton was left perplexed at the finish.
“I honestly don’t really understand what happened. We were slow on all three types of tires and gradually fell back.”
“It was strange to qualify fourth, stay close behind the three cars ahead and ahead of the Ferrari, and then suddenly everyone disappeared.”
“It felt like there was no grip, as if I was driving on ice. Clearly, we made a mistake somewhere, but I’m still scratching my head.”
Lewis Hamilton, who finished eighth after starting from 13th place, was relatively pleased with his race and took a subtle jab at his teammate.
“I was much happier today. I was making progress, moving forward, heading in the right direction, but unfortunately, I was too far back.”
“If I had qualified where George was, I think I would have finished at least there, maybe even further ahead.”
“I believe we could have been close to the podium. I’m not sure if we were faster than Ferrari, but certain aspects of our pace were strong.”
“The car wasn’t as great compared to the last race, where we had much more pace. But we were closer to the others today than we were yesterday.”
Wolff Calls for Deep Analysis After Mercedes’ Zandvoort Woes
It was a disappointment for Mercedes F1 at Zandvoort. George Russell couldn’t convert his 4th place on the grid into a strong finish, gradually falling back.
Lewis Hamilton, who started 13th, climbed to 8th, but this remains a very disappointing result for team principal Toto Wolff.
“It was a completely disappointing weekend, very surprising,” the Austrian admitted.
“There are many things we need to look into, we need to analyze everything because you don’t go from finishing first and second three weeks ago to ending up seventh and eighth.”
“A lot of reflection, data analysis, and hopefully some answers for Monza. The car just wasn’t good enough.”
Wolff sees nothing positive from the weekend.
“It was pretty bad apart from the very start. We struggled with the car, and it’s frustrating. But sometimes you need setbacks to make for a better weekend.”
Russell had to make a second stop, losing two places to Sainz and Perez.
“I think his tires were at the end of their life, which is why we had to switch to a two-stop strategy. That wasn’t the original plan, but the setup wasn’t good enough to go the distance like the others.”
“Lewis locked up and was on the canvas, so we had to stop again as well, but he had a cushion over Gasly behind him. Towards the end, Lewis’s pace was good, and George’s was decent with settings that we also need to evaluate.”
Is this just a bad race or a trend?
“I’m never confident; I always see the glass as half empty rather than half full. But we’ve learned a lot, and next weekend, we’ll need to show that on track.”
Andrew Shovlin, trackside engineering director, also acknowledged: “overall, it was a bad weekend.”
“We’ll go through the data to understand why we weren’t on pace, both in qualifying and the race. In the race, we lacked the speed to fight for much more than we managed.”
“We weren’t generating good grip, which led to tire sliding and consequently higher degradation than our competitors, forcing us into a two-stop race. We were on the defensive, but we’ll work hard to ensure that’s not the case next weekend at Monza.”
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Mercedes Falters: Russell Confused, Hamilton Paces to 8th Mercedes Falters: Russell Confused, Hamilton Paces to 8th. f1 2024 Mercedes Falters: Russell Confused, Hamilton Paces to 8th
