George Russell revealed Mercedes have enough reasons to make them confident that their race weekend at Zandvoort will be better than Spa.
The Briton finished the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend fourth behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, having failed to catch up with the Spaniard in the final laps of the race, but his result was nevertheless impressive after Mercedes’ massive deficit to in qualifying, over 1.8s off the pace.
Speaking to the media in Holland, Russell reflected on the W13’s pace swings saying: “[Being faster in the race than in qualifying has] definitely been a bit of a theme for us this season: we’re still yet to fully understand why we have such a big swing, to be honest.
“The swing is probably less compared to Red Bull but when you look at it compared to the midfield, we’re often being outqualified by an Alpine or a McLaren.
“I was pretty disappointed not to get third position [in Belgium] because I thought had I done things slightly differently it would have been possible, but we just need to overcome our single lap struggles,” he admitted.
Russell is more upbeat about his team’s chance this weekend, saying: “It’s a shorter lap [at Zandvoort than at Spa], so I don’t think the gaps will be as big!
“I think, I’m sure Max and Red Bull are going to be in prime position and they’re going to be very competitive.
“We’ve got reason to believe that it may be slightly better than Spa, but I think Spa was also a circuit that brought out the worst in our car, so to be honest, we’re always going in with an open mind now,” the 24-year-old added.
Lewis Hamilton hoping to be in a better window
Lewis Hamilton retired from last weekend’s race after contact with Fernando Alonso on Lap 1, but is also confident that this weekend might be better for the eight-time Formula 1 Constructors’ Champions.
“We hope so. It should be in a slightly better window this weekend, yeah,” said Hamilton on Thursday in Zandvoort.
“Last weekend it didn’t look good and all that confidence that we built over five races kind of,” he added. “It was like a ‘two steps forward and five back’ kind of feeling, but I think it was maybe a one-off, particularly with that track, and so yes, I’m definitely hoping.
“I think it’s going to be hard to beat the Red Bulls so it’s going to need something to come away and open up and create that opportunity, but that’s always possible, so we’ll see.”
Hamilton was full of praise for Russell, saying: “George did a great job in the last race, as he continues to do during the year.
“It’s definitely tough because I think I probably could have come second in the last race if I’d done the job I was supposed to do, but you live and you learn,” he said of his contact with Alonso.
“We don’t have the pace, naturally, over a single lap – that’s something that we’re trying to work on – but race pace is definitely key in some places.
“I’m thinking that we just have to keep on working on that, not lose our race potential, but try and improve our single lap [pace],” the seven-time Champion maintained.
Ready for a #DutchGP classic this weekend. ?️? pic.twitter.com/AW0VEhfPv0
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) September 1, 2022