Russell on Mercedes’ ‘dirty’ season in Formula 1: ‘Hamilton and I didn’t have the same pace’

George Russell faces a difficult Formula 1 season in 2023. The Sao Paulo Grand Prix was also disappointing last weekend. Consistency is something Mercedes doesn’t seem to have mastered. Russell has noticed this too, as he always sees a big gap between himself and his teammate Lewis Hamilton.

the Silver arrows You have two more chances this year to win: in Las Vegas and in Abu Dhabi. If that doesn’t work, it will be Mercedes’ first winless season since 2012. Hamilton has come close to second place in Australia, Spain and Mexico City. He also finished second in Austin, Texas, but was then disqualified. Russell won just one title with Spain, who finished third. He has dropped out of school in Australia, Canada, Singapore and Brazil. He is now 70 points behind Hamilton. There are Grand Prix races where Russell doesn’t have the pace to keep up with the seven-time world champion, but sometimes it’s the opposite.

Dirty season

“I feel good about the new promotions, to be honest,” Russell told the media. “But the last few races were very bad for different reasons. They weren’t very intuitive races with the limitations we had, like controlling the brakes a lot.” [in Mexico-Stad]gasoline management was widespread in Austin.” Moreover, the tire management was in Brazil. “So I’m not sitting here wondering why the speed isn’t there, because I know the speed is there [zonder deze problemen] He is. It’s a tough season, especially compared to last year, when every race seemed to go our way in terms of pace and other things. And this year was very, very dirty.

Also interesting: Russell sighs after tough weekend for Mercedes: ‘Our best race was twelve months ago’

Same restrictions

Hamilton has been faster than Russell eleven times in the twenty qualifying rounds so far this season, and Russell is nine times faster than Hamilton again. They are roughly equal in this respect, but the gap in lap times between the Brits is often significant. When asked if there was anything in the car that could explain this, the latter replied: “No, there isn’t. It’s a good question because it’s definitely something that Lewis and I noticed during the season.” “I don’t think we’ve ever had the same pace before. I think we’ve been almost as good in qualifying over the last two years, but there’s always one driver who’s 0.4 or 0.6 seconds faster than the other. It’s something I think there are definitely little differences in our driving style, But the basic restrictions are the same for us.”