"I can't really comment on Lewis Hamilton's feeling": George Russell brushes aside questions about his teammate's struggles

George Russell refuses to comment on Lewis Hamilton's struggles during the 2024 F1 Australian GP qualifying session.

Lewis Hamilton was P9 in the final stages of the Q2 session but was pushed to P11 after Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll clocked in their fastest laps and improved. Russell narrowly missed getting eliminated as well, since he was one position ahead of Hamilton. The younger British driver had a decent Q3 session where he finished P7.

When Russell was asked about his Mercedes teammate's performance, he refused to comment but stated that both he and Hamilton were unsatisfied with their current positions.

"I'm just focused on myself and my team and trying to maximise it. I can't really comment on Lewis' feeling. Ultimately, we are not quite where we want to be," Russell told Sky Sports.

Russell expressed his disappointment by recalling his past qualifying sessions in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, which were better than Australia.

"We had a strong qualifying in Bahrain with P3. If it wasn't for the problems in the race we would have been fighting for the podium and we were P5 in Jeddah. P7 is not ideal but there's definitely a lot to play for tomorrow," he added.

Hamilton has now been out-qualified by Russell in the first three races of the 2024 F1 season. This is the seven-time world champion's last season with Mercedes, after which he will join Ferrari in 2025.

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Mercedes senior explains why Lewis Hamilton and George Russell struggled in Jeddah

Mercedes' trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained why Lewis Hamilton and George Russell struggled during the 2024 F1 Saudi Arabian GP a week ago.

Speaking on Mercedes F1's official YouTube video, Shovlin pinpointed that the wrong balance was the cause of both drivers being unable to push through high-speed corners at Jeddah. He added how the car oversteered when both Hamilton and Russell tried to lean on the tires.

"It’s a few things. One of them was the balance wasn't great. So those very fast corners, the walls aren't particularly far away - so the ones [corners] where the driver wants a lot of confidence. And quite often we were snapping to oversteer if they really leaned on the tires."

Russell finished P6 in the Saudi Arabian GP, while Hamilton ended three places below in P9.