George Russell expects that a change to the concept of the W13 will not make the car go faster. The 24-year-old Englishman is therefore happy that Mercedes has stoically stuck to the concept with the narrow sidepods and that is slowly but surely starting to yield results.
At the beginning of the year, Mercedes showed the W13 to the outside world. The concept was original, but also made the W13 prone to bouncing violently, more than the other teams. The climax, according to the team’s driver duo, was during the race in Baku. Then Russell and teammate Lewis Hamilton still visibly climbed out of the car and had problems with their backs after the weekend. The porpoising seems to have been solved for the Brackley stable and the team is now working on the speed and that seems to be paying off. In Hungary Russell managed to take pole position and the Mercedes duo was on the podium together with Max Verstappen, something that was also the case in France.
‘That doesn’t make us faster’
The single pole sitter does not want to change the concept of the car, although he does not want to rule out good ideas either. “We just have to remain open to all ideas. Besides, I don’t think changing the concept will really make us faster, quite the contrary,” explains Russell, who expects the team to only slow down if the car is fundamentally modified. . Of the arduous road up, he says, “Sometimes you just have to stick to the process and keep pushing and that’s hard when you’re out of line and things don’t seem to be going your way.”
Progress
At the Hungaroring, Russell scored his first-ever pole position, something that was totally unexpected. The Englishman was unable to convert it into a victory during the race, but nevertheless he has faith in the team who, in his eyes, will ensure the turnaround. “Personally, I believe in everyone in our team. At the start of the season we finished races one minute behind the winner. The last two races we were within ten seconds, so I think things are definitely going in the right direction.” Russell concludes.
