George Russell believes the Mercedes F1 team can be victorious before the end of the 2022 season, but insists it will never have the fastest car.
Mercedes F1’s performance has been marred by chronic porpoise and bouncing problems in its new-generation F1 cars, but its recent form reflects the team’s undeniable progress since the first half of the 2022 season. .
In the F1 Hungarian GP, George Russell won the first pole position in his F1 career, and Mercedes F1 won the double podium for the second consecutive race in the final. Lewis Hamilton finished second and Russell third.
However, despite recent progress, Mercedes F1 is still being overtaken by rivals Red Bull and Ferrari.
“We’re definitely closing the gap, there’s no doubt about it, but the four cars ahead of us definitely have a pace advantage,” said George Russell.
“But I think as a team we’re slowly closing the gap. After the summer break we’ll add some extras to the car, but I think everyone will, so easy yes. It won’t work.”
“I still believe that at some point this season we will probably be able to fight for the win, but I don’t think we will ever have the completely fastest car.”
Mercedes F1’s progress this season was partly the result of trial and error, or live experiments conducted during the sessions, which helped engineers better understand the W13’s intricacies of ground effects cars. .
And every “experiment” brought some enlightenment to the team. It was the same at the Hungaroring, which endured a difficult Friday and turned around on Saturday.
Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes F1’s trackside engineering director, said: “It was a little uncomfortable and the car was in a pretty bad spot, but it was a useful experience to go one way and realize we needed to go the other. He explained.
“We do all these races saying, ‘We have to do a live experiment, we have to learn for the future.'”
“It sounds great in theory, but in practice it can be very difficult and very uncomfortable. But it was a great turn.”
“Both drivers did a great job and the team did a great job. It’s a great way to head into the summer break.”
Category: F1 / George Russell / mercedes