Tag: Mercedes-AMG F1

Hamilton says he’s not at his best after Hungary ‘reality’ check

Lewis Hamilton says he’s been operating beneath his usual competitive standard despite not having the car to take the fight to the leaders. The Briton beat Max Verstappen to a shock pole by just 0.003s on Saturday to set up a potentially fascinating …

Lewis Hamilton says he’s been operating beneath his usual competitive standard despite not having the car to take the fight to the leaders.

The Briton beat Max Verstappen to a shock pole by just 0.003s on Saturday to set up a potentially fascinating battle, but a slow start opened the door to a bold move on the brakes by the Dutchman to assume the lead into the first corner.

Verstappen went on to claim a 33s victory, the largest since Hamilton won the 2021 Russian Grand Prix by almost a minute. Hamilton eventually trailed home fourth, 39s off the lead.

The 2021 season seemed to be on Hamilton’s mind. It had been the year of his last pole before Saturday and remains the season of his last victory.

“I haven’t been at my best for over a year,” he said on Sunday night. “I think yesterday felt like I was me being back to my best.

“Max got a better start than me. I just got a bit of wheelspin and was a bit compromised after that. I think we may have been able to finish third with a slightly better start, but fourth is still OK.”

Hamilton said his inability to covert pole to podium was just another reminder of how much work Mercedes still has to do to return to contention.

“It’s obvious that we’re not the quickest,” he said. “We don’t have the quickest car.

“I’m really proud of myself and the job that we did yesterday to get pole position, to outperform the world champion and the other two cars that are quicker than us. Today it’s just reality. The reality is we’re not fast enough.”

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Mercedes’ race simulation tools correctly predicted that Red Bull Racing would be too quick to overhaul, but the team had been anticipating a battle with McLaren for a podium spot at least.

Instead, Lando Norris again proved agonizingly out of reach, and while Hamilton was able to beat Oscar Piastri, the Australian was hamstrung by floor damage picked up sometime after his first stint.

“They already told me in strategy this morning I would be at least 0.5s slower than the Red Bulls, so the fight’s not with Max. We were hoping that we could fight the McLarens, but the McLaren was too quick for us,” Hamilton said.

“We were just too slow in the first two stints. The balance was not good, the car was just slow — just the balance of the car shifting through the race. Then the balance picked up a lot at the end and all of a sudden I was able to apply the pressure, but it was too late.”

Teammate George Russell enjoyed a more fruitful race, recovering from 18th to sixth in what he described as a missed opportunity for the team after his qualifying result was ruined by bad timing.

“To come away P6 with no safety car and no VSC, on merit, was a really great result but equally proof that this weekend was probably a missed opportunity,” he said. “I’m confident I could’ve been up there with Lewis yesterday.

“When you’ve got two cars up there fighting for, let’s say, P2, it gives you a lot more options. Lewis was really strong as well, and if things panned out slightly differently, he would’ve been P2 as well.

“As I said, missed opportunity. We’ll learn from it. But the positives are we’re moving ahead of Aston and Ferrari.”

Hamilton praises ‘night and day’ Hungarian GP pole performance

Lewis Hamilton has praised the overnight work of his team to turn the car’s lackluster Friday pace into a surprise pole-setting performance. Mercedes ended Friday practice anchored to the bottom of the time sheet, with Hamilton 16th and teammate …

Lewis Hamilton has praised the overnight work of his team to turn the car’s lackluster Friday pace into a surprise pole-setting performance.

Mercedes ended Friday practice anchored to the bottom of the time sheet, with Hamilton 16th and teammate George Russell last. While the raw times were due to neither driver using the soft tire, Hamilton described the car as being “at its worst” at a track he has historically dominated.

“It’s night and day different today,” he said. “Literally we turned it up on its head. Yesterday the car felt terrible. The balance was all over the place. It was very, very difficult to extract any performance from it.”

Work overnight on the Mercedes simulator in the UK delivered setup changes that reversed the team’s fortunes and put Hamilton in pole contention.

“What we do best is we work hard through the night,” he added. “The team works hard on the simulator, and we get a new direction on the Saturday. We made some really great changes to the car last night and it put us in a much better window, so I was then able to just build on that.”

Combined with Max Verstappen’s struggles with balance in his Red Bull, it was enough for Hamilton to snatch pole by a super-fine 0.003s.

“I started to get this confidence back today,” Hamilton said. “Today was a fun day, when you can really throw it into the corners and know that it’s going to just about stick with you.

“It was definitely still a fight through the lap. I think we still lack rear end — that’s our weakest point — but today it definitely was fun.”

Hamilton said the changes had given him enough faith in the car to reach for pole when he would otherwise have been more cautious.

“Once we got to Q2 it was looking quite decent all of a sudden,” he said. Then once we got to Q3 we were only a tenth off Max, and I knew I had more time I could find in the car.

“The car was just not quite up to it on the previous laps, but at the last point I just had to send it and hope I stayed on the track.

“What a feeling — an uplifting feeling — for everyone in the team.”

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Hamilton’s 104th pole is his first P1 start since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and his first front-row qualification since that year’s title-deciding race in Abu Dhabi.

Mercedes has struggled for competitiveness since then, claiming only one pole and win, both at the hands of George Russell last season.

The seven-time champion hinted that the drought had taken a mental toll on him, particularly given the way the 2021 campaign ended with his championship defeat.

“It’s an extraordinary feeling after you’ve been here for such a long time and you’ve had the success before,” he said. “Even though it’s 104 it feels like the first. It’s hard to explain how special it feels.

“I’m just so happy and happy for everyone in the team. It’s been a really, really difficult year and a half on a personal level, but then as a team collectively — so many ideas and trying to find the right path to be on and continue to have the motivation with everyone and keep everyone driven. That’s been the challenge for all of us. This is a team effort. The team deserves this today.”

Hamilton’s qualifying success set a new record for most poles at single grand prix, with nine Hungarian P1 starts.

Converting pole to victory will likewise see him break new ground for success at a single venue, with nine victories — unprecedented for one driver at one track.

The Briton was cautiously optimistic that Mercedes had a route to the top step of the podium.

“Normally it’s not a bad race car,” he said. “We tend to have decent race pace. Max’s race pace yesterday was, I think, quite extraordinary. I think they were quite a bit quicker than us.

“If there’ s a way to hold position, then maybe there’s a fighting chance for us. Just even being up there in the top three — we’re going to have a great race for sure.”

McLaren pace is a ‘wake up call’ for Mercedes – Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton says McLaren’s pace in qualifying for the British Grand Prix is good for Formula 1 but “a wake up call” for Mercedes. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri qualified second and third behind Max Verstappen at Silverstone, with Verstappen …

Lewis Hamilton says McLaren’s pace in qualifying for the British Grand Prix is good for Formula 1 but “a wake up call” for Mercedes.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri qualified second and third behind Max Verstappen at Silverstone, with Verstappen needing a final lap to beat the lead McLaren by just over 0.2s. Hamilton ended up seventh behind teammate George Russell in sixth, and says the concept that his former team has followed is proving to be the right one.

“Not surprised,” Hamilton said. “If you look at the car it makes sense. I’m really happy for them; they’ve had a bad run for so long. To be back up there is really, really great to see.

“If you put it alongside a Red Bull it’s looks very, very similar down the sides. And it’s working, and that’s great to have them up in the mix, which is what we want to see in this sport.

“It’s not a blow, it’s just a wake up call for us. Others are overtaking us. We need to do more.”

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Hamilton doesn’t expect an easy run trying to beat McLaren on Sunday, believing it will be tough to finish on the podium at his home race.

“They had the edge on us last race so I anticipate tomorrow will be the same … Of course I’ll try and be optimistic and do our best, but realistically I’m not sure how… We’ll find out. It was difficult to get past the two Ferraris and we’ve got two McLarens now there. Gonna be a tough race.

“It’s always a special feeling to be here for the British Grand Prix. You always hope you can bring a great performance for the British fans so naturally today it’s disappointing we couldn’t do more, but hopefully tomorrow we can give them a good race.”

After beating Hamilton in qualifying, Russell says Mercedes can at least take heart from the progress made overnight after a tough Friday.

“Our numbers suggested we were 17th and 18th yesterday in qualifying, then third and fourth in the race,” Russell said. “Clearly we made some improvements. I was gutted to see we were half a tenth from P3, which would have been incredible. My lap felt great. I don’t think there was much in there.

“Lewis has been really on it this weekend and pushing me hard. Well done to McLaren — they came from nowhere and are the big unknown for tomorrow.”

Russell apologizes to Mercedes for costly Canadian GP error

George Russell apologized to his Mercedes team for the costly error that took him out of fourth place in the Canadian Grand Prix. Mercedes had the ability to split strategies with its two drivers as the only one of the front-running teams with both …

George Russell apologized to his Mercedes team for the costly error that took him out of fourth place in the Canadian Grand Prix.

Mercedes had the ability to split strategies with its two drivers as the only one of the front-running teams with both cars in the top 10 in Montreal, and was running second and fourth with Lewis Hamilton and Russell respectively when the latter hit the wall at Turn 9. Russell admitted he had been caught out by how much the curb unsettled his car after a mistake, and that he cost the team significant points as a result.

“I don’t know if it was obvious from the TV; I just went a bit wide into Turn 8,” Russell said. “I knew I was going to hit the curb, but I wasn’t expecting the sausage curb to have such a violent response, and next thing I’m in the air, I landed and lost the rear, and I’m in the wall.

“It all happened really quite suddenly. Sorry to the team. For sure there was P3, P4 on the cards for us both, but positives to take away that the car was reasonably competitive.”

Russell was able to limp back to the pits and Mercedes checked the damage, replaced his front wing and sent him back out, much to the driver’s surprise.

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“Yeah, I did (think it was race over) to be honest. I was quite surprised that we managed to continue. I was very close to pulling up. I learned from the Silverstone experience (in 2022) not to stop too early. For sure, it’s a difficult pill to swallow. But that’s how the sport should be — one small mistake, you should be punished for it.

“It didn’t feel 100 percent perfect after that, but it was absolutely good enough to drive. I think the rear toe was a little bit out. We could have got home in P8. But we were in a lot of traffic, and the pre-race predictions, we weren’t obviously expecting to be in that position, hence why we got the brakes in the wrong place.”

The issue with the brakes eventually forced Russell to retire, and he believes it wasn’t an issue that Mercedes was likely to be able to have addressed during the race.

“I need to look into it with the team, but I’m pretty sure it was just because I was in so much traffic we weren’t planning to be, and the brakes weren’t in the right spot.

“It was all quite sudden when it was too late. I think the thing with brakes, once you go over a certain oscillation threshold, there’s no recovering. It does’t matter how much you nurse them. They’re just on a rate you can’t recover.”

Hamilton ‘definitely feeling’ car improvements in Canada

Lewis Hamilton says he can feel the recent improvements made by Mercedes at the Canadian Grand Prix after leading teammate George Russell in FP2. The first practice session was cancelled due to an issue with the CCTV infrastructure that meant race …

Lewis Hamilton says he can feel the recent improvements made by Mercedes at the Canadian Grand Prix after leading teammate George Russell in FP2.

The first practice session was cancelled due to an issue with the CCTV infrastructure that meant race control didn’t have the required track visibility, but was rectified in time for an extended second session. Hamilton was fastest by just 0.027s from Russell as Mercedes secured a one-two before rain hit, and says the car’s recent developments are carrying through to Montreal.

“I can only base it off compared to last year and it’s massively better than last year,” Hamilton said. “The rear end is not necessarily, but overall the car is just a step forwards and I’m definitely feeling the improvements that we felt in Monaco and (in Spain) here.

“It’s probably the bumpiest circuit that we’ve been on in a long time. A bit of a strange day because obviously we got to miss the first session. I felt really bad for all the fans that are out there — we’ve had a great crowd already from yesterday, the city is pumping… I don’t know what happened, CCTV cameras or something like that, but I’m glad we got to go out.

“It was nice to have an hour and a half session, but we haven’t had an hour and a half for a long time so then I felt like the time was not used optimally. We’ll get back and have a look at how we can (do better), but I was just itching to go. I was like ‘Get me out, let’s maximize the time out there’.

“But I love driving this track; it’s mega. I loved it, from the moment you leave the pit line it’s like, ‘Yeah this is wicked.’ The car didn’t feel bad but I think we’ve definitely got some work to do.”

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Hamilton wasn’t reading too much into his session-leading time on soft tires based on how the Mercedes was handling, however.

“It was not the greatest but not the worst by far! As I said, it’s feeling pretty decent, it’s just bumpy. I think everyone has had struggles with the bumps, so I think we’ve just got to improve our ride control and balance through the corner and I think we’ll be alright.”

Russell had similar comments to his teammate and also downplayed qualifying expectations based on when Mercedes completed its fastest runs.

“It was a reasonably productive session, (but) I don’t think we can read too much into the timings,” Russell said. “We did our low fuel qualifying prep towards the end of the session when the track was quicker. It’s bumpy. It’s bloomin’ bumpy out there!

“I think between Barcelona and here, they’re two totally different circuits. Barcelona — super smooth, high-speed circuit. Here, it’s incredibly bumpy, but I do think the upgrades we brought to the car in Barcelona have helped the limitations that we probably would have had more of with the old specification of car.

“We need to find out where we’re going to be. I think we’re still on the tail-end, especially in qualifying pace, compared to Ferrari and Aston Martin. There might be even… Valtteri (Bottas) looked quick, maybe an Alpine. But we always know it comes to us on a Sunday. That’s when it’s going to matter. It looks to be wet tomorrow. Let’s see what it brings.”

Hamilton leads Mercedes duo atop extended Canadian FP2

Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have topped the mostly dry second practice at the Canadian Grand Prix. Dark clouds descended on Montreal, but rain held off until the final five minutes of the 90-minute session, allowing teams to …

Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have topped the mostly dry second practice at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Dark clouds descended on Montreal, but rain held off until the final five minutes of the 90-minute session, allowing teams to complete dry qualifying and race simulations uninterrupted.

The track was declared wet in the final 10 minutes in anticipation of the thunderstorm crawling towards the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, leading to the bizarre scenes of most of the field fitting intermediate tires but lapping a still-dry track.

Most drivers completed only one lap on the wet-weather rubber before returning to pit lane and calling it a day — only for heavy rain to lash the circuit just a few minutes later.

Aston Martin, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo sent their drivers back onto the wet track, as did McLaren with Lando Norris, but the intensity of the downpour quickly exceeded the capacity of the intermediate tire.

Bottas came close to disaster after aquaplaning off the track and onto the grass at the hairpin, where he almost collected Charles Leclerc before getting his wayward Alfa back under control.

He wasn’t the only driver to slip and slide his way around the track in the heavy weather, and the drivers who had braved the tricky conditions all returned to pit lane as the session ended.

Hamilton ended the day quickest on his soft-tire run early in the session, clocking in at 1m 13.718s. Russell followed just 0.027s off the pace, with Carlos Sainz completing the top three for Ferrari at 0.126s adrift.

Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest in his upgraded Aston Martin car, the Spaniard 0.326s down on Hamilton time but 0.05s faster than Charles Leclerc, who appeared to have rediscovered confidence in his Ferrari after a difficult weekend in Barcelona.

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Title leader Max Verstappen was only sixth fastest and 0.424s off the pace, but both he and teammate Sergio Perez, who was eighth, set their fastest laps on the medium tire.

Perez had in part scotched the team’s first runs when he clobbered the curbs and came close to the barrier at the exit of Turn 7, forcing him to abandon his lap and prompting Verstappen just behind him to likewise call off his lap.

Their second attempts were then curtailed by a red flag for Esteban Ocon, who stopped on track with a water pressure loss.

Verstappen also complained of problems with his downshifts early in the session.

The combination of problems opened the door to Valtteri Bottas slotting between them in seventh for Alfa Romeo.

Lance Stroll was ninth, his car having spent most of the session in flo-viz paint to assess the team’s upgrade package, while Pierre Gasly completed the top 10.

Oscar Piastri avoided disaster late in a brush with the wall of champions out of the final chicane but was able to continue to 11th ahead of Haas driver Kevin Magnussen and McLaren teammate Lando Norris.

Zhou Guanyu was 14th ahead of AlphaTauri teammates Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck dr Vies.

Alex Albon was the sole operator of the Williams upgrade package, which he took to 17th in the standings ahead of the stopped Ocon and teammate Logan Sargeant.

Nico Hulkenberg was last in the order after his engine failed just 11 laps into the session, which was stretched to 90 minutes to compensate teams for the written-off FP1 earlier in the day, which was abandoned due to CCTV issues.

‘Very special’ Mercedes charge to double podium – Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes’ race pace and ability to get both cars on the podium at the Spanish Grand Prix made for a “very special” result for the team. George Russell climbed from 12th to third behind Hamilton, who had comfortably cleared Lance …

Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes’ race pace and ability to get both cars on the podium at the Spanish Grand Prix made for a “very special” result for the team.

George Russell climbed from 12th to third behind Hamilton, who had comfortably cleared Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz to end up as Max Verstappen’s nearest challenger in Barcelona. With Mercedes moving up to second in the constructors’ championship and becoming the first team other than Red Bull to score a double podium, Hamilton says the race takes on added significance after recent upgrades were introduced.

“This one was very special,” Hamilton said. “I think we got a great reception from the crowd here. And to be able to share the podium with my teammate is really special, given just the journey that we’ve been on together to try and close the gap to the guys ahead. This is a really amazing day for us.

“The car felt great today. Friday was a real struggle with the balance; it was way out the window. It was very, very hard to drive, very unpredictable, and then we did some great work overnight. We’ve got a great team with Mick (Schumacher) back at the simulator on Friday night — he did some great work which helped us get on the right track on Saturday.

“I think we did pretty decent work in trying to understand the different downforce levels. And the race today…the car felt great, honestly. I couldn’t match the times that Max was doing, but I think…for George to come from 12th to third is just remarkable. A really awesome result for us as a team.”

Perhaps the biggest threat to Hamilton’s race was contact with Lando Norris at the second corner, with the McLaren driver running into the back of the Mercedes and damaging his own front wing.

“I just felt a big hit from behind. Obviously Max and Carlos went quite wide and deep into Turn 1. But then they were coming back across, and I basically got in the wake so I had to be patient, and then I got a hit from behind.

“I think it was a shame for Lando because he did such an amazing job yesterday. It’s great to see McLaren up there on the second row. And I think today, probably, even if he was ahead of me going into the corner, we would have overtaken him because we had slightly better pace I would say, race-trim wise. It ended up not being a great result for him. If he was just a little bit more patient today, I think he would have probably had a better result, but we live and we learn.”

Wolff keen to manage expectations over Mercedes’ Imola update

Mercedes will have a “pretty large” update in Imola to try and resolve its car problems, but team principal Toto Wolff warns that the team needs to keep expectations in check. Pre-season optimism quickly dissipated at Mercedes during the opening …

Mercedes will have a “pretty large” update in Imola to try and resolve its car problems, but team principal Toto Wolff warns that the team needs to keep expectations in check.

Pre-season optimism quickly dissipated at Mercedes during the opening rounds of the Formula 1 season as it realized it didn’t have a car that it could challenge Red Bull. The team quickly started exploring new development directions that it will start to implement from the next race in Imola onwards, and as anticipation mounts over the upgrade package, Wolff is becoming concerned about Mercedes expecting too much from it.

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“We need to manage our own expectations, because we’re bringing an update package that’s going to consist of new suspension parts, and bodywork and some other things,” Wolff said. “But I have never in my 15 years in Formula 1 seen a silver bullet being introduced, where suddenly you unlock half a second of performance. So I very much doubt that this is going to happen here.

“What I’m looking for is that we take certain variables off the table where we believe we could have introduced something that we don’t understand in the car, and to go more to, let’s say, a stable platform. And then we should see where the baseline is and what we can do from there.

“I think we are chasing downforce, and we’re trying to do the best possible job in terms of the mechanical platform. So what we’re doing is, we’re introducing a new bodywork and we’re introducing a new floor and we’re doing a new front suspension, and that’s pretty large. That’s a pretty large operation, large surgery, and it’s going to be a lot of learning. In the virtual world, it is good lap time.”

Given Imola marks the start of F1’s first triple-header of the season – also featuring Monaco and Barcelona – and Wolff believes it’s a well-timed upgrade as Mercedes will get plenty of opportunities to gather data.

“I think we know what we’re doing to the car,” he said. “Really quickly, we will see whether that correlates with the virtual world. I think it’s good to have three races in a row to understand what’s actually happening, and then it gives us maybe a little bit of a buffer later on to filter that and then take next decisions of what to do in terms of updates.

“But Monaco between the two is something that it’s a single lap issue and a tire that comes into life quickly. None of that we do well… So let’s see where we are in Imola.”

Mercedes encouraged by early development work on 2023 car

Mercedes is already seeing development in its factory “that is going to get us back into this championship fight”, according to technical director Mike Elliott. A disappointing start to the season compared to Red Bull has left Mercedes admitting it …

Mercedes is already seeing development in its factory “that is going to get us back into this championship fight”, according to technical director Mike Elliott.

A disappointing start to the season compared to Red Bull has left Mercedes admitting it got its 2023 car wrong and looking into radical changes with the aim of fighting for wins before the end of the season. At the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, team principal Toto Wolff was far more optimistic when it came to the direction being followed in development, and Elliott says the team’s response has quickly started to show positive results.

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“Obviously, Bahrain was a real reality check and to find ourselves in the position we find ourselves in, not being competitive, was a real disappointment,” Elliott said. “A disappointment for the whole team. But you have to get yourself through that and you have to turn that into, what we are going to do about it? How are we going to bring the sort of the energy and what we are capable of doing? How are we going to move ourselves forward? How are we going to get ourselves back in the fight?

“Walking around the factory there is huge amount of energy, there is a huge amount of work going on, we are starting to see some of the development come through already that is going to get us back into this championship fight. All we can do is just keep pushing, and I’ve been really pleased to see the attitude in the team.”

After being beaten by power unit customer Aston Martin in each of the opening two races, Elliott said the term “concept” being used when relating to the Mercedes is not solely about the sidepod design, and the team is evaluating multiple different avenues in its quest to turn things around.

“The simple answer is it means different things to different people,” he said. “After Bahrain we had to accept we weren’t where we wanted to be, so we had to look at all the things that make up our car and work out what could we be doing differently; how could we get more performance, because there is a significant gap for us to catch up to the front. So, the engineers are busy looking at aerodynamics, they are looking at the shape of the car, things like the sidepod geometry, the floor geometry – have we missed a trick?

“But we are also looking in the simulation world; are we targeting the right things, are we pushing the aerodynamics in the right direction, looking at the mechanical setup of the car. Are there things there that we are missing? What else can we bring to the car that is going to add performance?

“We try to do that as fast as we possibly can because we want to get back to the front, we want to be competing at the front and the only way we are going to do that is by accepting we are not in the position we want to be and fighting and working really hard to get back there.”

‘I can’t get the confidence back’ – Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton says he is lacking confidence in his Mercedes car at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after being outqualified by teammate George Russell. Russell impressed with a lap that was good enough for fourth in qualifying despite Mercedes already …

Lewis Hamilton says he is lacking confidence in his Mercedes car at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after being outqualified by teammate George Russell.

Russell impressed with a lap that was good enough for fourth in qualifying despite Mercedes already talking about needing to make radical changes to its car, and the younger Brit will start third due to a grid penalty for Charles Leclerc. Hamilton will start seventh after ending up 0.4s off his teammate, but says the difference comes from his own confidence in the car.

“I wouldn’t say (there’s added frustration),” Hamilton said. “The car is where it is, George did a great job, he’s right up there on the second row, so the car is obviously working. I just don’t feel connected to this car. No matter what I do, no matter what I change, I can’t get the confidence back.

“I just struggled to extract the performance from the car… In high-speed, (the) car was a bit understeery. It’s a little bit different, yeah — one or two different things. Hopefully will be OK for tomorrow.”

Pushed on if he thought the car would be better in the race, Hamilton replied: “I wouldn’t hold my breath…”

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Already starting in a top-three position, Russell believes he has the car beneath him to try and stay there, with Fernando Alonso his main target.

“I think we can definitely fight for a podium. It seems close with Aston Martin; Ferrari have maybe got a tenth or two on us, but obviously we’re starting ahead of both of them. So no reason why we can’t fight for a podium. I think Max (Verstappen) is going to come through pretty comfortably, unless there’s any incidents or hold-ups. But we’ll go for it.”

Russell says the work done between the first race and arriving in Jeddah has helped him feel more comfortable with the Mercedes at the second round.

“Actually, I was feeling good, to be honest, here. The car has been feeling good. That’s not the weakness at the moment — the weakness is just a lack of overall downforce. We did a lot of work overnight…in the simulator — we did a lot of work — I was back in the factory working hard on the sim and that’s what I’m sort of most satisfied about. It’s that hard work has sorted of translated into relative performance, but of course we know globally we’ve got more work to do.

“Just hard work and getting the car in the right place — I think we’ve got a lot of good tools, we’ve got a good simulator back at base, we’ve got a good group of people, and I think the work we did overnight, the work we did this morning, we got it in a really, really decent window.”

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