{"id":17077,"date":"2023-11-03T05:22:26","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T09:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=17077"},"modified":"2023-11-03T05:22:26","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T09:22:26","slug":"f1-news-russell-mercedes-searching-for-why-drivers-never-the-same-pace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2023\/11\/03\/f1-news-russell-mercedes-searching-for-why-drivers-never-the-same-pace\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell: Mercedes searching for why drivers never &#8220;the same pace&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>George Russell says Mercedes must understand why there are notable gaps in performance between himself and Lewis Hamilton.<\/h3>\n<p>The 2023 season certainly hasn&#8217;t gone to plan for George Russell. Aside from Mercedes&#8217; failure to build a car capable of fighting with Red Bull, the 25-year-old finds himself significantly behind <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2023\/10\/30\/lewis-hamilton-gives-insight-into-red-bull-mercedes-2024-projects\/\" target=\"_self\">Lewis Hamilton<\/a> in the standings.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst there is no shame in a 7-time World Champion outscoring you, Russell certainly isn&#8217;t experiencing the same success he enjoyed last year.<\/p>\n<p>In qualifying, the two Silver Arrows can hardly be separated. Hamilton enjoys a slender 10-9 advantage in their head-to-head. On race day, however, the 38-year-old is consistently securing more substantial results.<\/p>\n<p>Podium finishes are the most glaring example of this, with George Russell only taking a single top-three finish for Mercedes in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>As with any competitive driver, such a discrepancy is a source of frustration. More than this insists Russell, it is necessary to understand why performance can fluctuate so drastically across the Mercedes garage.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-17080 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/11\/SI202310061609_hires_jpeg_24bit_rgb-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/><\/p>\n<p>He identifies this as an important area to rectify for next season, which he explained to the media:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;That&#8217;s definitely something we&#8217;ve noticed. Lewis and I, over the course of the year, I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;ve ever been on the same pace,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/2023\/11\/02\/russell-mercedes-trying-to-understand-team-mate-disparity\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">he explained at Interlagos<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I think over the last two years, our qualifying record is almost the same. But it&#8217;s either one driver is 4 or 6 tenths ahead, or it&#8217;s the other.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;It&#8217;s something we&#8217;re trying to understand&#8230; It&#8217;s something I&#8217;m trying to figure out myself.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;And I&#8217;m sure he&#8217;s trying to figure out as well.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a id=\"UVeIDIKlRsxHRsgog9IJvg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1770971007\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'UVeIDIKlRsxHRsgog9IJvg',sig:'Ug38AmbS-5FM0B8nG_K-_bocPWuYmuTP7yo1wIfoj3c=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1770971007',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Russell&#8217;s comments pinpoint a relevant area for the German outfit to scrutinise. Especially in the early stages of the year, Mercedes have been prone to their drivers experiencing peaks and troughs.<\/p>\n<p>Much of this is attributed to the W14&#8217;s characteristics, which didn&#8217;t provide the necessary stability for drivers to push with confidence. However, the situation has improved in this regard.<\/p>\n<p>A series of floor upgrades have been introduced in the second half of 2023. These have been accompanied by improved results and &#8211; per driver feedback &#8211; better handling.\u00a0Lewis Hamilton has touched upon this issue recently, describing <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2023\/10\/23\/max-verstappen-wins-in-cota-hamilton-and-leclerc-given-dsq\/\" target=\"_self\">the COTA updates<\/a> as one of the most notable changes to the car over the last two years.<\/p>\n<p>It doesn&#8217;t seem Russell is finding his feet in the same way as his teammate. It would be unfair to suggest the 25-year-old lacks pace. Perhaps the more accurate interpretation is that &#8211; with an elite teammate &#8211; any mistakes or off-weekends are costly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>George Russell says Mercedes must understand why there are notable gaps in performance between himself and Lewis Hamilton. The 2023 season certainly hasn&#8217;t gone to plan for George Russell. Aside from Mercedes&#8217; failure to build a car capable of fighting with Red Bull, the 25-year-old finds himself significantly behind Lewis Hamilton in the standings. Whilst [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":14284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2186,68,23,1450,121],"class_list":["post-17077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2023-formula-1-season","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-george-russell","tag-mercedes"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}