Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished sixth and ninth in Jeddah. The result was worse than the first round of the season in Bahrain and the team dropped to fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship, behind McLaren.
George Russell (6th): “The evening became long. I completed almost 40 laps, one and a half seconds behind Fernando Alonso, but I could not overtake him. My car was unstable at high speeds and I couldn’t get close enough to apply pressure. Sixth place is probably a fair result. It is very clear that we have not yet been able to find the optimal machine settings.
Overall, we need to improve. We see the car’s potential and speed, but fail to demonstrate it when it matters. It is necessary to understand what this is about and to improve it before the Melbourne stage.
There is a very exciting battle going on behind Red Bull, so everything must always be done perfectly. There is still a lot of work to be done, but I have confidence in the team.”
Lewis Hamilton (9th): “Today we hoped that a real or virtual safety car would work in our favor. Unfortunately he never came out at the right time and I ended up in a lower position than when I started.
Anyway, it made sense to try something different. We did everything we could and this is probably the best result I could have hoped for today, given how the race went.
The car has potential, but we need to get it up to speed. Today the W15 was good in the medium and slow corners, but I lost speed in the fast corners.
The coming races will be difficult, but we will do our best to perform as well as possible. I know everyone on base will continue to work as hard as they can.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
