Ahead of Max Verstappen from Red Bull and Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes, George Russell from Mercedes is leading.
George Russell has denied Mercedes are losing pace as a track ramps up over a race weekend, believing it’s more of a question of why aren’t their rivals “quick on a Friday”.
In Friday’s practices for the Monaco Grand Prix, Mercedes showcased their strong performance as Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets in FP1. However, by the end of the day, Hamilton slipped to second place overall, with Charles Leclerc taking the lead.
George Russell questioning ‘why our competitors aren’t quick on a Friday’
A day later though, the team-mates were fifth and seventh in qualifying with Russell ahead of Hamilton as he raced out to a 7-1 head-to-head advantage over his compatriot.
But almost three-tenths down on the pole position time set by Leclerc, Russell was asked by former F1 driver Mark Webber if Mercedes are losing speed when the ‘track ramps up’.
He expressed to the Channel 4 pundit his doubt about why our rivals are not quick on Fridays.
“Our strategists consistently analyze the data, including fuel loads and engine modes, and consistently indicate that we usually rank around P5, P6. However, we often exceed expectations and end up placing slightly higher on the leaderboard than we believe we should.”
In order to give credit to our strategists, they consistently inform us, “Although we may have completed the session in P2 or P3, our actual speed is more accurately represented by P5 or P6.”
Although it may appear that way initially, the reality is that we are actually quite consistent.
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Russell is convinced that Mercedes has made progress with their new spec front wing, as evidenced by the top ten finishers in the race maintaining their qualifying positions.
He expressed, “To be honest, I am extremely pleased with the car. Over the weekend, I had the new front wing on my side, and it performed exceptionally well.”
In my opinion, this past weekend has been the most fiercely contested one we’ve experienced throughout the entire year.
It’s evident that our performance has been affected by Red Bull’s disappointing results, but I truly believe this could be a pivotal moment for us.
Mercedes, who have yet to feature on a Grand Prix podium this season, are fourth in the Constructors’ Championship with 96 points while Russell sits P7 in the Drivers’ standings where he is 12 points up on Lewis Hamilton.
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