Russell not experiencing same problems as Hamilton at Mercedes

George Russell claims he is "reasonably happy" with how his Mercedes car is handling after qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix. Whilst the young Brit acknowledged the performance needs to improve, he wasn't as downbeat as Hamilton with how his W15 performed. The seven-time World Champion was deflated and claimed he had "no positives to take."

Hamilton is leaving Mercedes at the end of the 2024 Formula 1 season to pursue a project at Ferrari. The Brit is currently having one of the worst runs of results in his career. If he finishes outside the top five in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix, it will be the first time he has failed to be in those top five places for six consecutive races. The 39-year-old is also consistently getting beaten by his teammate. Russell's P7 in Melbourne's qualifying session maintains his 100% teammate duel win record in 2024.

Hamilton has been complaining about the balance and other set-up issues. Meanwhile, Russell finds some positives. "I'm definitely not having the fluctuations in confidence or performance in my car compared to what Lewis is experiencing. I'm reasonably happy with how the car is handling. We just don't quite have the performance. It's a difficult day, but we're still P7. There's going to be a lot of deg in the race and still all to play for," Russell told reporters in Melbourne.

Russell continues to add a positive spin: "I think we definitely know that we're struggling in the high-speed corners. And this is again a circuit that you see quite a lot of medium and high speed corners. So we know where we need to work on. That's clear. But as I said, in these first three qualis of the year we've been P3, P7, P7. In a grid that's so tight, there's still a lot to play for for those positions behind Red Bull."