Russell on having a better set-up than Hamilton: 'Knew that was right'
F1 News
Lewis Hamilton claimed that he would've got a better result in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix had he followed the same set-up path as teammate George Russell. The young British driver finished in fourth place, around six seconds up the road compared to Hamilton. Russell significantly out qualified the seven-time World Champion.
Mercedes have started the season on the backfoot and look set to introduce significant upgrades over the next two months. Ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, Russell said the upgrades aren't ready yet but had the chance to explain why he opted for the specific path that seemed to unlock a little bit more pace in Saudi Arabia.
"It's all down to the preparation you put in before the event and the changes we made overnight. I knew that was going to be the right direction with the work we did with the team and I believed it was going to be better than the set-up that Lewis opted for. Everybody's got different preferences. I was happy with the direction I took and with the work I'm doing with the engineers," Russell said in the press conference.
Upgrades and expectations
During the Bahrain Grand Prix, team boss Toto Wolff seemed to rule Mercedes out of contention for the World Championship. Whilst they are significantly behind Red Bull Racing, there is a sense of growing optimism within the Mercedes camp about the upgrades coming. Russell provided an update on this in Melbourne.
"We all believed over the winter what we were doing was correct because it was an evolution of what we did throughout last year and we all saw the improvements we made as a team throughout last year to win a race at the end of the year and be fighting at the front. It caught us by surprise to see the lack of performance when we hit the track in Bahrain and that's why we were quick to change our approach," Russell added.
"I'm not going to sit here and say we're incredibly optimistic. All I will say is we are making improvements and that should translate into lap time but we recognise that Red Bull are over a second down the road at the moment," Russell concluded.