“This car is really hard to get in the sweet spot”: George Russell comments on Mercedes’ woes after Lewis Hamilton setback in Abu Dhabi

For the season finale in Abu Dhabi, George Russell qualified in the second row, while teammate Lewis Hamilton failed to qualify in the top 10 for the second weekend in a row.

After sitting out in the first practice session, Hamilton struggled to find the right setup for the Mercedes W14 in the rest of the sessions. Meanwhile, Russell had a flying start to his weekend, topping two of the three sessions.

Hamilton and the team failed to resolve the setup issues, as he was seen struggling with the car balance. Sharing his thoughts on the pace difference between teammates, Russell admitted it was really hard to find the 'sweet spot' for the W14.

"We’ve never been the same pace, either I’ve been 4 or 5 tenths ahead or he’s been 4 or 5 tenths ahead. It’s really strange to understand because he’s never 4 or 5 tenths off the pace, clearly, this car is really hard to get in the sweet spot," he said to the media post-qualifying session.

Lewis Hamilton added both George Russell and he were on the same setup, but reckoned something was wrong on his side of the garage.

"It was a challenging session for me today, I've been struggling with the set-up of the car here in Abu Dhabi this weekend, although our cars are set up the same, so we need to understand what it is on my side of the garage that's causing the lack of performance." he said

Lewis Hamilton was relieved to put the final qualifying session behind him as he was hoping to move up the grid in Sunday's race to help Mercedes secure second in the Constructors' standings.

---

George Russell terms his "scrappy" 2023 season "one of his worst"

George Russell will finish the 2023 season eighth in the Drivers' standings, while teammate Lewis Hamilton will finish third. Despite qualifying well on Saturdays, the points gap between the teammates explains Russell's woes on Sundays.

The Brit called his scrappy 2023 season 'one of the worst' in his five-year career. After qualifying fourth for the season finale, the 25-year-old said to Motorsport.com:

"I want to finish the season on a high. It's been probably one of the worst seasons of my career in terms of results. It's just been just a really scrappy, messy season."

"I don't think it's been through a lack of speed. We've had really strong pace in many, many races but just never achieved that result on a Sunday," he added.

George Russell listed plenty of races where he was unlucky but admitted a few mistakes compounded his misery:

"It's just tiny little things which you can say 'Easy to rectify that'. But when it happens once or twice, you can put it down to bad luck. When it happens on maybe nine, 10, 11 occasions throughout the year, it's definitely not luck."