Mercedes have had a tough start to the 2022 championship with their new W13. Porpoising and lack of performance had restricted the Silver Arrows in the midfield during the first five races. However, the German racing team experienced a big turnaround during the Spanish Grand Grix in Barcelona. Both the Mercedes driver George Russell and Lewis Hamilton managed to finish in the top five. Russell stayed in the top three for the most part of the race and finished P3 to secure his second podium of the year. Meanwhile, Hamilton made a dream comeback to finish P5 after falling to the 19th position early in the race.
Russell fought with the two Red Bull drivers in the front and managed to lead the race for a while as he fought hard to keep Verstappen and Perez behind him. However, the RB-18 emerged to be more powerful in terms of performance in comparison with the W13. This allowed Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez to acquire the first two positions. However, George kept pushing and finished in the third position to acquire his second podium of the season.
The British driver was satisfied with his efforts and believed that Mercedes had found the foundation that they could build on in the upcoming races. The 24-year-old shared that the Spanish Grand Prix was satisfying as the team truely fought for it. George Russell feels that Mercedes have now got the baseline to build upon. He revealed that everyone at Mercedes has been trying for a long time to find the foundation of the W13. George feels that Mercedes have found it and need to find the performance to compete with the frontrunners, Red Bull and Ferrari.
Rusell Feels Mercedes Still Have A Lot Of Work To Do
The Briton was delighted with his team\’s performance in Spain. However, George Russell acknowledged that Mercedes are not there just yet. The Mercedes driver said that the car is in condition to at least put up a fight against Red Bull and Ferrari.
He further pointed out that the engineering team at Brixworth and Brackley has worked hard over the past couple of weeks to turn things around. And the W13\’s performance was a result of their immense efforts. Russell added, \”We\’ve definitely turned the corner and I think we\’re on the right track.\”
Elsewhere, Russell\’s fight against the reigning world champ Verstappen was helped by a peculiar DRS issue with the RB-18. Charles Leclerc also retired after a suspected power unit problem while leading comfortably. George Russell was sympathetic towards his rivals. However, the Briton feels that Mercedes did not make it easy for Verstappen. He put up a bit of a fight before the Dutchman flew past him. In addition, George said, \”Ultimately, they had the pace on us today. Sorry for Charles as well. But ultimately as we said before, you\’ve got to be there at the end.\”
The Silver Arrows will feel that they can finally win a race with the W13 this year. Mercedes will look to boost up the car\’s performance so that they can put up an even better fight during the upcoming weekend in Monaco.