George Russell says he and Lewis Hamilton had two different set-ups during the Chinese Grand Prix weekend that both produced very similar lap times and performances, so work must go back to the factory.
Mercedes is experiencing unpleasant situations again in the new season, which they hoped to turn around after the problematic car of last year,
The new W15 was designed in such a way that they completely rejected the famous concept of zero sides, and from last year’s W14, it was said that practically none of the details will be transferred to this year’s car.
However, the drivers of the German team cannot find what was expected. The data from the air tunnels does not match the one on the track, so there are various attempts to change the settings.
The Chinese Grand Prix brought another disappointing performance in which Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were on different settings, all with the aim of trying to find the necessary direction.
However, the younger British driver of the Silver Arrows believes that it is necessary to do other things because not everything is in the settings.
“We had two different setups this weekend, both of which produced very similar lap times and performance,” said Russell.
“So the work has to go back to the factory and eventually to F1. The more downforce you have, the faster you will go. The setting is the icing on the cake.”
“I don’t think there is a magic wand. We just need to keep adding performance and focus on the basics, which are the wind tunnel and CFD: just adding downforce.”
“Maybe sometimes it’s that simple.”
Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton have already revealed that Mercedes are bringing some upgrades to Miami, and George hopes they will provide the step forward that is needed.
“I think we have understood enough by now that we simply need to add downforce. We have changed philosophies and we have changed concepts quite a few times in the last two years,” he pointed out.
“My personal view is that no matter what concept you’re working on, you just need to have as much downforce as possible, and then you’ll deal with the limitations.”
“So, let’s see in Miami. We have some upgrades coming to the car. “Let’s see what we can do with it,” Russell concluded.
