Russell: Mercedes “not too fast” on soft tires in Australian GP practice

George Russell Felt confident with her Mercedes W16 on Harder compounds during practice for Formula 1’s Australian Grand Prix, but thought that the car was struggling to get out of sofets during qualifying simulation.

Russell stood 10th in the FP2 content, although the end-session displayed a good level of the speed of the approximate race during a long run, as he felt more comfortable with C3 and C4 tires that Pirelli brought to Albert Park.

Britain eventually was 0.843s below Charles LakelerHeadline lap from FP2, especially behind Racing bulls Couple and Lance walkAs it looked a bit free on the W16 C5.

Russell said that his team could find a smoking gun during the post-session debate, but noticed that the squad was struggling to find a-lap performance step between soft and medium tires.

Russell said, “It was really the day and bottom because every time we had a medium or hard tires, we were right in the top two of the sheets of time and liked it in every lap, felt confidently,” Russell said.

“And then we put the soft, we did not go very quickly. The car is clearly a little speed and it is just getting the most from the tires, so we need to understand why it is so. Let’s see what we can achieve overnight.

“I mean, if the session closes with a hard tire and if the session is closed after the medium tires and FP1, I would have said that we are definitely or there. But obviously you don’t qualify under a hard or medium tire, you qualify on a soft tire, and we don’t look competitive on it.

“I am sure we can find some improvements tonight.”

Cheating Andrea Kimi Antoneley The FP2 was only the 16th fastest in the order, with a handful of moments in his fastest lap, and the young Italian struggled to find a window with the C5 campus for Mercedes.

He said that his own inexperience with the tires meant that he was struggling to get the right temperature in the red-beveled pyrellis before starting his own flying lap efforts, but still he was fully positive as Mercedes Driver.

“It’s I think it was a fairly positive day; Some work has to be done on a single lap, just getting a tire in the right window, but overall I liked it very much,” Antoneley reviewed.

“I made a small mistake in the end, but overall I think I am growing more and more confidence, and I think today was quite positive.

“C5 is a complex that I have not really used, so I am learning it; especially warm-ups are quite difficult, but we have received some good data before tomorrow.”

Photos from Australian GP – Free Practice