George Russell dropped two places in the Bahrain Grand Prix as the Mercedes struggled with engine issues as the driver also confessed they made incorrect predictions about the conditions.
George Russell admitted that he and Lewis Hamilton encountered difficulties with their Mercedes engines during the Bahrain Grand Prix. The British driver initially secured third place in qualifying, however, he crossed the finish line in fifth position as the team Silver Arrows ended up behind both Red Bulls and Ferraris.
Russell quickly moved up to second place at the beginning of the race, but problems with insufficient power caused him to drop down the leaderboard, leading him to voice his frustrations over the team radio.
Russell admitted that the team’s struggles prevented them from fully realizing the Mercedes’ potential, making it seem like they are now on par with their competitors.
He also mentioned that the team’s inability to anticipate the weather conditions resulted in significant losses.
He said: “We both faced a similar problem (with Lewis Hamilton ) for some reason we had massive engine overheating and the battery wasn’t working properly. I made a really good start, got into second and then suddenly I had these big red alarms on my steering wheel and I had no battery left, we had to turn the power down, we were loosing about four-tenths a lap just in power.
“It’s a shame that we didn’t get to show any real potential of this car, so a bit of a strange day. It’s nothing really to be concerned about all we needed to do was put a slightly bigger bodywork on. Our forecast of the conditions were incorrect so we need to go round that loop and ultimately it cost us a lot.
“I think all of the teams have maybe five or six different cooling specifications and we went with our most aggressive option and clearly just went too far, it was just simply a decision that we chose the wrong bodywork for the conditions of today.”
By the time the chequered flag came down Russell was more than 46 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton meanwhile, who finished seventh behind the McLaren of Lando Norris, was 50 seconds off the flying Dutchman.
“Mercedes, who have only secured victory in one race in the last two years, showed promise during practice sessions indicating a potential return to the top of the standings, but their performance in the actual race was not as strong.
Despite this, Hamilton acknowledged that they are further behind the Red Bulls than they had expected.”
He expressed that there may be some disappointment among the team, although he was unsure about others. He personally had higher expectations for the weekend’s performance.
The race was challenging and closely contested, with high levels of car degradation. There are many areas for improvement.
The team ended up farther behind the Red Bulls than anticipated.