George Russell has assessed that the Mercedes Formula 1 team “don’t have the answers” to its latest struggles following a challenging race weekend in Saudi Arabia.
Mercedes had been positive surrounding its prospects with an overhauled car concept on the W15 that had received encouraging assessments in pre-season testing.
But the German marque’s endured engine cooling concerns in Bahrain, while high-speed struggles saw it slump to sixth and ninth-place finishes at the Jeddah circuit.
The opening two weekends have witnessed Mercedes show a competitive turn of pace throughout practice but then regress once the defining sessions commence.
Russell contends that Mercedes’ current position behind Ferrari and McLaren in the pecking order is reflective of the team’s competitiveness declining each weekend.
When it was put to him that he had a solid race to take sixth place but it was not where Mercedes expected to be, Russell replied: “Yeah that’s a good assessment.
“We’re still really trying to understand this car because we have shown true performance at points over the last two weekends. FP1 straight out of the box we were top of the timesheets and always in the top three. FP2, P2, and then both weekends the pace has just fallen away from us. And that hasn’t been our competitors getting faster, that’s been us getting slower.
“We need to understand why that is, but it’s fine margins now.
“It’s so close between ourselves, McLaren and Aston, and Charles [Leclerc, Ferrari] is just a smidge ahead, we just need to tap into a bit more.”
Both Mercedes drivers complained about a recurrence of bouncing during the Jeddah weekend, but Russell believes there is “more to it” regarding the side’s slump.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff hinted that it was encountering a correlation problem between the simulator and track concerning its clear high-speed performance deficit.
Despite Wolff being adamant that it will “100 per cent” overcome such a setback, Russell has conceded that the squad is unsure about potential remedies to its issues.
“It’s so complex these days. These cars are so complicated, couple that with the tyres – the tyres are very difficult as well – and right now we don’t have the answers,” he admitted.
Russell was frustrated that he was unable to get close enough to Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin to overtake, leaving him 21 seconds behind the podium places.
With the exception of the dominant Red Bulls at the front, the Briton believes that the field behind the reigning champions remains compact at this nascent stage.
“I think if you take Red Bull out of the equation it’s all pretty tight, the remainder. How far did Charles finish ahead of [Oscar] Piastri?”
When he was told it was 12s, he added: “Yeah, so relatively speaking it’s all quite tight out there considering how many different teams there are, except Red Bull. But right now I’m not sure.”
Pressed on whether he expected the grid to be tighter amid the expectations the grid would converge on Red Bull, Russell replied: “No, I’d say in line with expectations.”
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