George Russell said he is “not going to get carried away” despite Mercedes’ resurgence, which saw him narrowly miss out on pole position for Formula 1‘s Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver lines up fourth on the grid at the Hungaroring with a lap that was just five hundredths of a second slower than Charles Leclerc’s pole time.
It appeared to be a vast improvement from the Brit, who has recently commented on the regression of the German marque’s W16 car across the last few races.
But Russell lost time at Turn 14 on his final run, which ultimately cost him top spot, blaming himself for not reacting to the change in wind direction over the course of the session.
“Yeah, well, the wind had shifted a lot. The wind was gustier,” he told media including Motorsport Week. “That corner was very different compared to Q2, but I should have reacted.
“I knew the wind was different, and I just had much less downforce in this corner, but that’s the reality.
“I should have reacted, and that’s what cost me today, but you speak with every driver, they’ll give you a reason of why they missed pole, because no one did their personal best in Q3.”
When asked why he perhaps felt underwhelmed despite what is, on paper, a vast improvement compared to last week’s outing in Spa, Russell acknowledged that all drivers in Q3 had gone slower than they had in Q2.
“Depends how you look at it, to be honest,” he replied. “Q3 was a messy session. We took the smallest step backwards from Q2. I was only a tenth slower than Q2.
“Charles was two tenths slower, Fernando [Alonso] was two tenths slower, McLaren was six tenths slower.
“So, I’m not going to get carried away with that Q3 performance, because for the rest of the weekend it hasn’t been straightforward.”
‘Complex’ F1 provides Mercedes headache
The upwards spike in performance in Hungary is a world away from the depressing takeaways from Belgium, where Russell was unhappy with the car’s performance.
For Budapest, it has reverted back to its old rear suspension, and Russell said that modern F1’s complexities make it harder for teams to determine what is causing poor performances in some races to others.
“I think Formula 1 is so complex, because even if you have the exact same car, one circuit you’re quick, one circuit you’re slow,” he explained.
“And there’s different reasons why this is, and you sometimes need to give an upgrade, a real test of different types of circuits, different types of conditions, to categorically say this is why we are good or this is why we are bad.
“In Barcelona, Imola, they were all very hot race weekends. We believed that was our root cause, and it still is a big factor of our limitation.
“But clearly at Spa, we were very underwhelming. Clearly the suspension was not an upgrade.”
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