George Russell doesn’t feel like he got his car settings wrong in Saudi Arabia, as Lewis Hamilton suggested.
All weekend, he was just a shadow of teammate Lewis Hamilton in Saudi Arabia. The seven-time world champion admitted that he was unable to become one with his car this year, and also revealed after the race that there was a certain difference in the configuration of the cars, which meant a disservice to him compared to George Russell, who finished fourth in front of him.
Hamilton commented on this:
“It was a choice of fifties: either this or that. In most cases, the direction he chooses is the wrong one, but now it works.”
While Hamilton’s words indicated that Russell bumped into him by mistake this time, the one-time race winner vehemently denied it. He confirmed at the Australian Grand Prix press conference that he already knows when choosing which direction his path will be the right one, and that Hamilton is the wrong one.
“I don’t think there was any luck. This was in the setup before the event. I knew the changes we made tonight would take us in the right direction thanks to the work we had done with the team. And I thought my setup would be better than what Lewis chose.”
“Everyone prefers different things. I was satisfied with the chosen direction and worked on it with the engineers.” – confirmed Russell, who also spoke at the end of last week about working more actively with his engineers and in the simulator this year than last season.
He didn’t hide it, he was very satisfied with his weekend in Saudi Arabia. “I think Saudi Arabia was one of the strongest weekends for Mercedes so far. I was really satisfied with my level from the time of the test onwards, my race was also really strong, and fourth place was, in my opinion, the most achievable.”
“The Ferraris were probably a little faster than us this weekend. Also, Stroll had a problem while he was right behind us. So fourth place was a good result.”
George Russell (Photo: XPB)For a short while, he even thought he was in third place. Fernando Alonso was penalized shortly after the race, and Russell was in bottom position for a few hours. Then the FIA overturned the Spaniard’s penalty.
Fernando was the first person to tell me that I had lost my place because we ran into each other at the airport.
Russell said.
“And it was the right decision. It was such a shame it turned out to be such a mess. I, or we, didn’t feel like we deserved third place, but obviously it’s a great feeling when you inherit it. Then they took it back, so it was a little weird.”
