George Russell fears that the Copse corner at Silverstone will not be able to be covered in full with the Mercedes W13. The English driver, in his first season in F1 with the World Constructors’ team, puts his hands forward thinking about the hopping problems that the silver arrow has had to face so far.
Russell, who last year with Williams managed to make Copse’s treacherous turn with full throttle, thinks he won’t be able to repeat himself this year due to the pumping to which the W13 is subjected to high speeds. In fact, since the Sakhir winter tests, Mercedes is one of the cars that have suffered the most from porpoising.
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
In the Spanish GP, Brackley’s team had brought an aerodynamic update package that made it possible to limit the hopping on the straight, but not the annoying presence of bottoming in the corners.
“All this took us by surprise in Barcelona – explains George – because we were not in difficulty on the straights but in the curves, in particular at turns 3 and 9 which are at high speed, with distances of 250 km / h”.
George Russell, Mercedes W13
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“If we consider that Copse runs at a much higher speed, it is easy to think that it will be very tough for us at that point. It will not be only us in difficulty, because there will also be other teams in the same boat. Even if we will have a lot more downforce than in 2021, I don’t think we will be able to go through that corner in full ”.
Mercedes will bring a half new car to Silverstone: there will not only be a new bottom, but also some layout changes that should make the W13 more drivable. So far the Brackley team is dry with victories after the dominations of the previous years: for now Russell and Hamilton have had to settle for five podiums, while Christian Horner, team principal of Milton Keynes, is betting that the Star in Great Britain can return to challenge Ferrari and Red Bull.
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