According to George Russell, Mercedes don’t quite understand why there is often such a big difference between qualifying and race pace
In the race Mercedes have usually been strong this season, but there is often no sign of pace in qualifying, let alone in practice. Where these big fluctuations in pace come from, Mercedes don’t understand 100 per cent either, says George Russell, who had driven to pole in Hungary but only finished eighth on the grid in Belgium.
“It’s definitely an issue for us this season,” says the Englishman. “To be honest, we still don’t quite understand why we have such a big turnaround.”
He doesn’t understand why Mercedes often finish behind Alpine and McLaren in qualifying and were even almost beaten by Alexander Albon in the Williams in Belgium.
“But then in the race we showed very strong pace,” he says. Russell was similarly quick to Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in fourth and just missed out on the podium, with teammate Lewis Hamilton out early in the battle for second after a first-lap collision with Fernando Alonso.
Podium in Belgium was possible
“It was quite disappointing not to get third place,” he said. “If I had done a few things a bit differently it would have been possible.” Russell says he really stepped on the gas in the final stint but then had nothing left in the tyres to attack Sainz.
“We had enough pace to maybe save the tyres a bit more and then maybe get him a lap or two later,” said the Briton. “Still, I think we have to be happy with how Sunday went.”
“But we just need to understand where that performance was on Friday and Saturday. “
There’s a lack of downforce
Hamilton was 1.8 seconds behind eventual race winner Max Verstappen in qualifying at Spa, with George Russell another three tenths of a second slower. One reason, he said, was simply a lack of downforce.
“On Sunday, when things are a bit more balanced, we see that we are still three or four tenths behind Red Bull on average and we need to find a bit more global downforce and maybe make our car a bit more efficient so we don’t lose so much time on the straights,” he said.
“But as we said, this season we are at a disadvantage if we qualify in the bottom half of Q3 or sometimes not even in Q3, and that puts us in a very difficult position,” said the Mercedes driver.
And the tyres are also an issue: “We just have to find a way to get the best out of them on a lap. “
