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Mercedes have been very vocal about their struggles ahead of the 2022 season opener in Bahrain. George Russell, who qualified in a disappointing ninth, revealed that despite being happy with the car in Q2, he had no grip when he really started to push the car to its limits.
In a post-qualifying interview with Sky Sports, the Briton said:
“In Q2, I was pretty happy to be honest. I was happy with the car, and I just tried something different with just one set of tyres and I really pushed on my outlap. I just had no grip, I went one second slower than I did in Q2 which, I was expecting to go a couple of tenths faster. That was a real shame. I’m glad I tried something different. It’s easy in retrospect. We know we’re not where we want to be.”
Expressing his hopes for the main race, Russell added, saying:
“Obviously P9 is much lower down than where the car is but we’re doing everything we can to get the car right to the front and fighting the Ferraris and Red Bull. Not ideal, but race day is tomorrow.”
Despite their poor performances and visible lack of pace in qualifying, several drivers are of the opinion that Mercedes will be back in form. The current top two teams Ferrari and Red Bull revealed that they do not want to make the mistake of getting too comfortable with their position.
"We’re not here to accept the third row" - Mercedes driver on struggles in Bahrain qualifying
George Russell will be starting the Bahrain Grand Prix in ninth place on Sunday, not exactly how he envisioned his first real stint as a Mercedes driver. After taking a bit of a gamble in qualifying, the 24-year-old admitted that it simply did not work out for him in Q3.
As reported by f1.com, Russell reflected on his poor qualifying session in Bahrain, saying:
“I think the third row was a minimum. But we’re not here to accept the third row, and I had one shot and I wanted to try something different, I wanted to try a much harder out-lap to see if that changed the feeling of the car to give us a shot to fight for the second row or the front row.”
Ferrari and Red Bull will start ahead of both Mercedes' in the main race tomorrow, having locked up the front two rows entirely.
