The news from Melbourne is that George Russell took the first podium with Mercedes. The Englishman benefited from the pit stop made in the safety car which favored him, but the Englishman played an Australian GP without the slightest flaw and in the end he finished ahead of team mate Lewis Hamilton.
George returns to Europe which is even second in the drivers ‘championship, just like Mercedes is the first pursuer of Ferrari in the Constructors’ classification. The third and fourth places at Albert Park are a good boost of confidence for Brackley’s team which has collected much more than was in the plans of the Star, thanks to the great reliability of the controversial W13.
On the revised Melbourne fast track, Mercedes was confirmed to be third force: they limited the damage while waiting for better times …
“We are leaving Melbourne with better morale than when we arrived – admitted Toto Wolff -: we have made a step in knowing the car, we bring home a lot of data to analyze and we have more points on the scoreboard. We clearly don’t have the pace yet to challenge Ferrari and Red Bull, but we know where to look for the missing performances. I saw the motivation and strength of the team that leaves me optimistic looking to the future: everyone is pushing hard to get back on top “.
The team principal tries to motivate the team, aware that the problems have been identified but not solved, because it seems that there are structural issues and not just aerodynamics to affect the performance of the silver arrows.
In the race, a less obsessive porpoising was observed than in practice because the ground clearance was slightly raised, without penalizing the top speed too much: Hamilton has shown that he can depend on Sergio Perez’s attacks with the DRS open, even if the W13s made use of a nolder that was mounted on the flatter wing to better preserve the tires.
And, in fact, the other interesting aspect for Mercedes is having made the hard tires work which, on the contrary, had not given encouraging results previously. The Star collects positive indications, even if the performances remain unconvincing: Russell pays 1 ”2 from Leclerc in the fastest lap of the race, and the pace remains slow: the safety car has limited the final gap to 25 seconds.
George Russell on his first podium with Mercedes
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“I congratulate George on his first podium in Mercedes – explained Andrew Shovlin, chief engineer on the track -, even if at the moment we don’t have the pace that perhaps he was hoping for. Lewis lost it in the Safety Car, but he managed to put pressure on Sergio in the first stint by coming out of the pit stop in front of him. But it was clear that we didn’t have the pace to counter it, even if our tire degradation was probably a bit less ”.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
The experience of the team that has won world titles for eight years in a row comes to the surface, the Brackley team manages to extract the maximum potential available from the silver arrow, but there is little to be fooled with a third and fourth place …
“We defended ourselves – continues Shovlin – but we know we have a lot to do because Charles today was from another world. It is therefore very likely that there is a long way to go, and we will allow ourselves some time to improve our lap time ”.
In a very diplomatic way, it is being admitted that Mercedes will not be able to change its season with the changes that will lead to Imola: the growth process will be much more gradual and complicated than expected …
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG, George Russell, Mercedes-AMG
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
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