Despite Mercedes’ early season woes continuing in Saudi Arabia, George Russell had the better of Lewis Hamilton, placing fifth to his teammate’s tenth place. In Jeddah, the Britishman discussed his opportunity over the seven-time World Champion.
Lewis Hamilton’s challenging Saudi Arabian Grand Prix week, according to George Russell, was caused by the seven-time World Champion choosing for a much more conservative set-up.
While Russell placed fifth from sixth on the grid in Jeddah, Hamilton ended 10th after qualifying 16th (albeit he was moved to 15th owing to the absence of Mick Schumacher), as Mercedes’ porpoising problems continued.
“On Lewis’ side of the garage, they probably went a bit more conservative with the set-up than we did, and that was the difference,” Russell told media including RacingNews365.com.
“It’s a real fine line between getting the car in the right window. There’s so many factors at play when we’re bouncing.
“Sometimes we change the set-up and we think it will improve, but it makes it slightly worse.”
Russell believes that resolving the porpoising problem is critical
Russell also mentioned how difficult it will be for Mercedes to fix the W13’s porpoising problem, owing to the fact that so many various aspects of the car influence the intensity of the bouncing.
“Between the mechanical stiffness of the car, then the stiffness of the floors, the design of the floors, tyre pressures, you know, there’s so many factors at play that contribute to making it better or worse,” the Briton explained.
“Engine mode as well. The faster you go, the worse it gets. It makes it harder for qualifying – we turn the engines up to maximum power, go quicker down the straight, [which] causes more downforce, and more porpoising.
“We almost need to pre-empt this issue, and also in the race, when you have DRS closed, you have more downforce than you do with DRS open, and that’s another factor that we need to consider.
“We’re still learning and that’s why we’re far from optimal. If we solve the porpoising that would cure 99 per cent of our issues.”
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