While Lewis Hamilton blames the poor qualifying pace on the car, George Russell found a clear culprit for the two-second gap to leader Max Verstappen at Spa on Saturday: the tyres. He says: “The updates work, but the tires are the outshining factor.”
Like yesterday, Friday, Mercedes had major problems getting the tires into the correct working window. “We know we don’t have a car that’s two seconds too slow, so we clearly didn’t get it right today. It’s a tough pill to swallow, especially when we were on pole in the last race. “
On the other hand, the Silver Arrows in Spa-Francorchamps were miles away from pole position. Both Mercedes had to admit defeat to the Alpines and only finished seventh and eighth.
According to Russell, this was mainly due to the conditions. “Today it’s 15 degrees and 20 degrees track temperature, but in Budapest it was 25 degrees and the track was 40 or 50 degrees,” he says. “And then the tires just work in a completely different window.”
“At the moment we have no answer”
A wrong window can make a second difference, “while we’re talking about a tenth or a maximum of two tenths with the aero update,” says Russell. He felt a bit reminiscent of Imola at Spa when Mercedes couldn’t get the tires to work either and both cars got stuck in Q2.
“We only had really bad qualifying in maybe three out of 14 races. Here and Imola come to mind – and maybe Monaco. And those are all tracks where you have problems with tire temperatures,” he says. “So there is a clear issue. We want to find a solution, but at the moment we don’t have an answer.”
“These are simply the limitations that are in this car,” he says about the W13, but also sees it positively. Because what is a weakness on Saturday usually turned out to be a strength on Sunday.
And since Mercedes will start the race from positions four and five thanks to the numerous grid penalties, the team still has every chance on Sunday. “We’ll probably get a clearer picture tomorrow,” Russell hopes.