© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
After struggling with his car at the Bahrain Grand Prix, George Russell says there is a “glimmer of hope” and Mercedes believes they can “solve the issue”.
Mercedes has been having serious issues with their car, which put the team firmly behind Ferrari and Red Bull at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
After the race George Russell revealed Mercedes believe they can solve the problems.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s purely engine. There are a number of contributing factors,” Russell said.
“We are quite draggy but this bouncing and porpoising we’re experiencing down the straight is going to slow you down because we’re smashing into the ground rather than going forwards.
“I think the lap time deficit we have is 50% in the straight and 50% in the corners. It offers a glimmer of hope.
“We all believe we can solve the issue but we truly just don’t know and we don’t know how long it’s going to take, if it might be next weekend or it might not be until after.”
The Briton again emphasized the ‘porpoising’ that Mercedes’ car is suffering from.
“I wouldn’t say it was physical, just uncomfortable really. You want a nice smooth ride and that’s definitely not what we had.
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“It was affecting the tyres quite a lot because in every braking zone you’re bouncing into the corner and the rears are skipping under braking because the car is so unsettled.
“We know that if we unlock this performance it’s just going to benefit everything. It’s going to help the tyres, help us on the brakes and we’re going to find more grip from it.
“We really hope we can find a solution as soon as possible because we just know that will answer a lot of our issues, but it’s easier said than done.”
Ultimately, with races more spread out before the summer break, Russell thinks this gives Mercedes more of a chance to catch up to the top two teams.
“So we’re clearly behind our rivals, clearly behind where we want to be, but I think we’re fortunate that the calendar is not so dense at the moment.
“We’ve got, over the next three and a half months, I think we’re doing only six races. When you compare that to post-summer break, you have six races in seven weeks.
“So we are fortunate in that aspect that we’ve got a bit of time to try and get on top of this,” Russell concluded.
