George Russell unhappy with relying on luck to cut the F1 title gap
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For a driver who’s firmly back in the Formula 1 title chase, George Russell didn’t seem very satisfied after slashing Kimi Antonelli’s lead yet further at the British Grand Prix.
For the second time in three races, Russell benefited from Antonelli having car trouble as he placed second to cut the 19-year-old Italian’s lead from 43 points to 25.
Russell still hasn’t got a handle on why he isn’t consistently getting as much out of the Mercedes — F1’s dominant car this year — as his younger teammate.
“I’m still struggling to understand this car. I probably still leave this weekend, albeit extremely grateful to stand on the podium, less satisfied than Canada when I broke down from the lead,” Russell said after Sunday’s race.
“If I want to fight for the championship, the performances need to be better. I need to be better. I need to be working better with my team. We need to be maximizing everything. We’ve got a close fight now with Ferrari. So it’s not just Kimi and I. Lewis (Hamilton) is still very close.”
Russell’s had his own share of bad luck this season, with his car failing him in Canada and a mistaken penalty in Monaco which was then compounded by a Mercedes pit crew blunder.
Russell has beaten Antonelli on level terms, without any car issues, twice this season but hasn’t come close to the consistent form which saw the Italian win five races in a row.
A win in Austria last week seemed like Russell’s season was finally back on track, only for him to run into the same trouble in Britain — a lack of pace seemingly without a clear cause.
“The feeling was good, but the lap times were slow,” he said. “I left Monaco, three races ago, 68 points behind and I leave here 25 points behind, so I’ll take it but it won’t continue like that forever unless the performance gets better.”
Charles Leclerc, the winner on Sunday, has the opposite problem.
Ferrari’s predictions for Silverstone were doom and gloom, based on a simulator which Hamilton said recommended the wrong setup options.
Working out why the Ferraris performed better than expected could yet unlock a way to replicate that performance at a wider range of tracks.
“This weekend was a particularly big surprise for the team,” Leclerc said. “As much as we need to analyze when things are going a lot worse than expected, we also need to analyze when things go a lot better than expected.”
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing