Optimism for George Russell and Mercedes after qualifying in Jeddah
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May the Mercedes comeback be upon us?
There may be no less than some renewed optimism across the Silver Arrows forward of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, after George Russell and Lewis Hamilton each certified within the high ten for Sunday’s Grand Prix. With Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc dealing with a ten-place grid penalty, Russell will roll off the road in third, with Hamilton in seventh.
Whereas not the drastic enchancment many Mercedes followers have been hoping for, after a troublesome season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, there appears to be extra optimism across the workforce following Saturday’s qualifying session at Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
“We now have exceeded the potential and our personal expectations to be forward of an Aston Martin and a Ferrari. It’s a strong job; we put in quite a lot of work in a single day,” exclaimed Russell in a press release to the media, together with SBNation, after qualifying. “The workforce again at Brackley have been working exhausting within the simulator and we did quite a lot of work trackside this morning to try to get extra out of the bundle. We all know we aren’t within the battle for pole simply but, however you need to maximise what you’ve acquired, and we definitely did that right this moment.”
Actually, Leclerc’s penalty — coupled with a retirement from Max Verstappen, who was primed for a begin on the high of the grid — aided Mercedes at the present time. Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin was fast to level that out following the qualifying runs. Nevertheless the drivers, particularly Russell, made the a lot of the session. “It’s been a troublesome weekend to get the automobile in the appropriate place and I don’t assume George may have gotten any extra out of it together with his laps within the closing session,” famous Shovlin. “We’ve benefited from Max’s points and Charles’ penalty to finish up third on the grid, however George nonetheless needed to get forward of plenty of key automobiles that have been all fairly fast.”
For his half, Hamilton was extra muted, as he admitted that he struggled with the W14 throughout qualifying. Nonetheless, there are indicators that the enhancements are coming collectively for the workforce. “I struggled a little bit bit right this moment, however we simply must preserve attempting. It doesn’t matter what modifications we’ve been making, we’ve been struggling to extract the pace, and I simply don’t really feel correctly related to the automobile in the intervening time,” mentioned Hamilton on Saturday night time. “That’s one thing we’ll work on to enhance the boldness within the subsequent races. George did an excellent job right this moment although and he wasn’t that far off among the automobiles on the entrance, so we simply must preserve pushing. It wasn’t the best of days however there are enhancements for the workforce.”
Waiting for Sunday, the workforce concedes that so much can change as soon as all 20 automobiles are on the observe. With the excessive speeds drivers attain at Jeddah Corniche Circuit, coupled with how drivers are nonetheless adjusting to the modifications on the observe — particularly the tightening at Turns 22 and 23 — something can occur.
“The race right here usually has just a few incidents so how properly you do is commonly a operate of whether or not they fall on the proper occasions. Only some locations separate our automobiles so it provides us a possibility to separate them on methods so we are able to cowl the bases,” mentioned Shovlin, waiting for the Grand Prix. “Hopefully we’ll be a bit kinder on the tyres than we have been in Bahrain; we’ve tried to work on the setup to realize that and we’ll discover out tomorrow if we’ve made progress.”
“I feel pace-wise tomorrow we’re with the Aston Martins and the Ferraris; no less than that’s per the lengthy runs yesterday, so we must always have the ability to mess around within the race,” added Workforce Principal Toto Wolff.
Of the group, Russell appeared probably the most optimistic.
“We now have a battle on our fingers tomorrow, most certainly with the Aston Martins and the Ferraris. We will likely be pushing exhausting to get on the rostrum and seeing what we are able to do,” mentioned the Mercedes driver. “This workforce has greater requirements and expectations for themselves than simply ending within the high three, however we will likely be giving every thing we’ve acquired to be standing there on Sunday.”
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