George Russell has lamented a “very dangerous qualifying” for Mercedes in Sepang as Crimson Bull pulled off a shock pole place on the Method 1 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
All eyes have been on Mercedes in Sepang, after the Silver Arrows claimed that its newly launched improve might be value as a lot as three tenths of a second per lap.
As a substitute, it grew to become clear throughout qualifying that Mercedes had not made the leap in efficiency anticipated, persistently lapping over half a second down on shock pole-sitters Max Verstappen and Crimson Bull.
Russell appeared to wrestle extra compared to teammate Kimi Antonelli, ending up over seven tenths of a second adrift of Verstappen, down in seventh place.
Requested after qualifying Russell was misplaced as to the explanation behind Mercedes’ sudden stoop in efficiency.
“No, to be sincere,” he stated to media, together with Motorsport Week.
“Clearly this circuit is a little bit of an outlier when it comes to the abrasiveness of the tarmac, , the lap instances.
“Seven years in the past we have been about six or seven seconds quicker and at sure factors on the monitor it feels such as you’re driving on gravel.
“Which is similar for everybody, nonetheless it’s clearly affecting us greater than others.”
George Russell confirms “problem” going through Mercedes in Sepang
Russell confirmed that Mercedes is going through a problem to grasp the automobile’s behaviour in Malaysia, lamenting its efficiency and questioned whether or not the improve was an enchancment.
“Effectively that’s the huge query mark,” he stated.
“If you happen to may have executed a direct back-to-back it could have been nice to know, however that’s the problem of this sport.
“If I put the improve bundle on final week, even when it was worse, we most likely nonetheless would have been on pole. And we’d have been saying it was unbelievable.
“And equally if we had the previous automobile right here, possibly the outcome would have been even worse. In order that’s the problem. As a workforce we’ve but to have, let’s say, a nasty race this entire season and this was clearly a really dangerous qualifying for us.
“All of the numbers say it’s an enchancment, however clearly it’s a sport the place we have to comply with the lap instances and never what the numbers say. So the numbers look completely high-quality and in step with expectations, nonetheless the outcome wasn’t.
“Effectively, I believe there’s going to be rather a lot occurring tomorrow. The tyre deg is large, I believe race tempo can be king. So though in the present day was an actual disappointment, it’s not the be-all end-all.”