Mercedes F1 driver George Russell qualified 5th with a 1:41.874, 0.509s behind pole-sitter Charles Leclerc, stating that he was ‘really happy’ with the car after a very tough Friday with a lack of feeling in the W15, as well as some unreliability.
The Mercedes driver said he was reasonably happy with the result of qualifying, mentioning that he felt really happy with the car and maximisef the result.
“No, we thought after FP3, realistically, P4. I think it was a little bit lower on fuel than most people and high power. So, yeah, reasonably happy.
“Yeah, it was. Yeah, but still five tenths, I think, to the top guys. And my laps felt really, really strong, you know, I was really happy with the car today. Yeah, but still, you know, you can always say I could have got a little bit more, but that kind of felt like everything.”
He did not forget to mention Ferrari, as polesitter Charles Leclerc was able to lock out P1 in Baku for a fourth straight year in qualifying, and said that they have work to do to figure out what the ‘trick’ was.
“Ferrari always seem to have a trick up their sleeve when it comes to these street circuits. C5 tyres, I don’t know what it is, but it’s been a theme for five years or so. So we need to try and figure out what that is.”
Asked about rolling back the floor to a previous iteration, Russell said that the floor wasn’t the main culprit of their woes and lacklustre performance, saying that the floor is not the one making the difference.
“Well, I think I qualified third last week on the new floor, qualified fourth in Zandvoort on a new floor, and I’ve qualified fifth today.
“It was a team decision,” said Russell after being asked about who made the decision to roll back the floor update.
“And we were substantially off the pace in the race, but clearly there was some performance in the car in qualifying the last two races. So I think probably validation that it’s not the floor that’s making the difference.”
