Russell admits a mistake and reveals shock issues at Mercedes including a low fuel problem. George Russell was left ruing a mistake he made during his final run in qualifying as the Brit was beaten for the first time this year by his 7 times champion team mate. Yet once again Mercedes have flattered to deceive during there course of the weekend. 

In practice one the pair were ahead of a Ferrari, both McLaren’s and both Aston Martins with Lewis Hamilton claiming the session was the best he’d had this year in the W15 car. With FP2 a washout, Russell and Hamilton returned on Saturday morning finish P3 and P4 behind just the Red Bull drivers.

 

 

 

Russell mistake costs him P4

The came qualifying and the former world champions were on the back foot from the off. In Q1 Russell could manage only the twelfth quickest time with his team mate three slots ahead – almost 8/10ths slower than Verstappen.

Running late when the track had improved in Q2, Hamilton snatched P3 with Russell again three places back but the gap was reduced but now just 0.4seconds to the Red Bull at the top of the pile.

When the money paying positions were decided in Q3, the Mercedes cars slipped in behind the remaining Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, both McLaren’s and the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz. Lewis claimed his best starting position of the season in P7, while Russell completed a Ferrari sandwich with Leclerc between himself and Hamilton.

Yet with Lewis rounding out the day almost 0.6 seconds behind pole sitter Max Verstappen, Mercedes improvement in terms of absolute pace has been marginal this season. George Russell explained he made a mistake on his final run which he believed cost him 0.4 seconds and by the Mercedes’ driver’s reckoning he was in a shout with batting Carlos Sainz to P4.

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Teams more tightly bunched

Russell revealed after the session: “We predicted before the session to be about 0.1s between ourselves, Ferrari, McLaren and Aston [Martin],” said Russell. “When it comes to that one lap in qualifying, if you nail it or you don’t quite nail it, that can be the difference these days of six positions.

“I was on a really strong lap, 0.25s up by Turn 11 and expecting to maybe finish 0.4s ahead. Made one small mistake and lost all the time. That was a bit of a shame.”

George believes his team have come to understood the drop off in performance of the W15 when it comes to qualifying this year so far explaining how much faster the cars are in qualifying when compared to full tanks in the race.

“We know the strengths and weaknesses of our car. The weakness is high-speed corners. When you get to qualifying, you take the fuel out, the corners are becoming faster and faster and faster. So, the pace naturally sort of goes away from us a bit in those corners…

 

 

 

Mercedes correlation tools failing

“We’re definitely doing more drastic test items at the moment to try and get on top of this high-speed performance. The car is correlating well in low speed and medium speed.”

Russell explains the tools Mercedes use to correlate their on track performance with the simulator predictions are giving them problems presently in one particular area.

“We’re a long way off in the high speed compared to what we’re seeing back at base. So, we need to get on top of that.

“When you get to qualifying and the fuel comes out, the speeds are only going higher, higher and higher and that sort of runs away from us slightly.

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Low fuel problematic for Mercedes

“Whereas in the race, you’re probably going around the corners 30km/h slower in a high speed, which brings it back into more of a medium-speed corner rather than a high-speed corner.”

Amusingly Mercedes feel hard done to by the scheduling of the F1 calendar in that most of the early venues include high speed sections where the W15 is weak. Russell argues it would be a “very different picture” had the order been different.

“Unfortunately, just with the nature of this calendar, we’ve had three circuits in a row that are all high speed,” George said.

“If we started the season at Bahrain, Baku and Singapore, we’d probably be talking a very different picture for us.”

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F1 calendar not kind to Mercedes

Russell is correct to identify that to date, Bahrain has seen the best result for Mercedes. But with Hamilton retiring with a blown engine and Russell crashing out at the end of the Melbourne race, its difficult to extrapolate a particularly strong trend.

The race tomorrow will be a fascinating battle of strategy. Mercedes have saved two sets of hard tyres while Ferrari have two sets of mediums.

The mischievous Fernando Alonso reminded Rachael Brooks of Sky, that he is the only driver who has a brand new set of softs to use in the race. Given the top ten are likely to start on that compound, Alonso has a significant advantage and will be looking forward to passing Sainz and Norris who start ahead of him for the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix.

Charles Leclerc qualifying was compromised as early as Q1 where his first run was not quick enough to ensure he progressed. The Ferrari driver was forced to use an extra set of tyres which left him short by the time the pole position shootout came around.

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Formula One arrived this week for its 36th visit to the Suzuka circuit which many of the drivers’ cite as their favourite track. Its an old school venue with a narrower track than its modern equivalents, with small run off areas and super high speed cornering.

Friday practice was curtailed as the rain came for Free Practice Two with Max Verstappen setting the fastest time in the dry FP1 with a 1:30:056 – over a second and a half quicker than the comparable session held last year…. READ MORE