Russell joined Mercedes for 2022 after spending his first three years in F1 at Williams, however has spent the early a part of this season working with the group to ease its automotive struggles.
Beneath the brand new laws for this yr, a variety of groups have been fighting automobiles bouncing and porpoising, with Mercedes being one of many worst-hit outfits.
It has restricted the group to simply 5 podium finishes within the opening 9 races, leaving it behind Purple Bull and Ferrari within the constructors’ championship forward of this weekend’s British Grand Prix.
Mercedes took a step ahead with its porpoising situation when it introduced an replace to the Spanish Grand Prix again in Could, permitting the group to unlock extra efficiency from its automotive – though Russell and teammate Lewis Hamilton had been nonetheless fighting the automotive bouncing by the corners.
“All of it caught us unexpectedly after we went to Barcelona, and we weren’t porpoising down the straight, however then we received to the corners, the 2 excessive pace corners – Flip 3 and Flip 9 – and had been all bouncing by the corners,” Russell advised Motorsport.com.
“Should you take heed to our onboard throughout quali or the Ferrari onboard, you hear them like ‘crush, crush, crush’ by the nook itself in Flip 3 and Flip 9. Now that was at 250km/h – Copse is 300km/h.
“So, it is not going to be straightforward to navigate. However I believe there will be a variety of groups in the identical boat.”
Russell famous that he was in a position to go flat by Copse from opening observe onwards in his Williams FW44 automotive final yr, which was one of many slowest on the grid.
“I am fairly assured I will not be doing that this yr, though we have got a considerable quantity extra downforce at high-speed,” Russell stated.
Though Russell stated the sensation was “terrible from throughout the automotive” by the high-speed corners in Barcelona, Mercedes was the quickest group by this complicated, one thing he discovered “fairly intriguing”.
George Russell, Mercedes
Photograph by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
Mercedes is ready to convey additional updates to the British Grand Prix in a bid to elevate its kind, arriving in time for each Russell and Hamilton’s house race at Silverstone.
Purple Bull F1 chief Christian Horner tipped Mercedes to be an element within the battle on the entrance upon returning to a extra conventional observe corresponding to Silverstone, having struggled to compete on the road circuits in Monaco, Azerbaijan and Canada.
However Russell felt that because the group proceed to search out and tackle points with its automotive, the shift in observe specification was no assure of success.
“I believe we have at all times recognized it is received quite a lot of potential,” Russell stated of the Mercedes W13 automotive.
“We’re solely actually recognising now that the final three races have caught us unexpectedly, in the truth that they’re very totally different to Barcelona, and they’re all very comparable.
“The three avenue circuits are all very bumpy they usually all have sluggish pace corners. So, when you have a aggressive automotive in sluggish pace corners and one which’s actually sturdy over the bumps and the kerbs, you are gonna be quick in any respect three of these occasions.
“Now, we’ll Silverstone, we’ll Austria, Paul Ricard, Budapest – they’re extra conventional circuits, as such. However the details are, we’re uncovering form of totally different points from our bundle at each observe we go to.
“So, there isn’t any ensures that we’ll gentle the world on hearth after we get there.”
