F1: Mercedes' George Russell believes W15 has "potential" but failed to display it in Bahrain GP
Mar 03, 2024
Sakhir [Bahrain], March 3 : After the end of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team driver George Russell expressed that the W15 has "potential" to compete with other drivers in the race.
While speaking to the media after the race, Russell felt that there was something "wrong" with Mercedes' plans which had impacted their performance at the Sakhir circuit. The British driver added that he failed to display W15's "potential" at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
"Maybe there was something slightly wrong with our forecast or with the simulations, obviously the conditions had changed, the wind had changed, and maybe that had an impact. Nevertheless, that was a shame, there is potential in the car but today we didn't show it," Russell was quoted by Formula 1's official website as saying.
Russell claimed that he made a "good" move on Ferarri's Charles Leclerc, but following that his car faced technical problems.
The 26-year-old added that his W15's engine was overheating and was facing "big" red alarms.
"I made a good move on Charles [Leclerc] and I thought here we go. As soon as I got into second, I had all these big red alarms come up on my steering wheel, the engine was overheating and turns out we got the cooling wrong on the engine," he added.
Russell explained that he had to turn off the power for which his car lost pace in the final laps of the race.
"We had to turn the power down, it was costing us half a second a lap. We don't quite understand how we got it wrong because we've not experienced that yet, especially so early in the race," he added.
Russell started the Bahrain GP in third place on the grid behind pole-sitter Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc. The British driver had a promising start in the race but due to overheating issues, his position in the race was affected.
Sergio Perez made the first move over him to pass through the Mercedes. Later, Carlos Sainz and Leclerc managed to overtake Russell. The Mercedes driver ended his race in fifth place after McLaren's Lando Norris continued to trouble him from behind.
