Amidst high expectations following a promising weekend, both Mercedes drivers were anticipated to contend at the front, particularly George Russell, who secured a third-place qualifying position on Friday. Russell initially lived up to these expectations by overtaking Charles Leclerc and securing second place early in the race.
However, his progress was abruptly hindered by overheating issues, compelling him to lift and coast, resulting in lap time lost and positions surrendered. Sergio Perez led the charge past the struggling Mercedes, followed by Carlos Sainz and Leclerc, and he had to settle for P5.
Explaining the issues he faced, Russell explained it started when he passed an ailing Charles Leclerc for P2.
“For whatever reason we had massive engine overheating and the battery wasn’t working properly and you know I made a really good start, got into second and I was sort of like ‘here we go’ and suddenly I had these big red alarms on my steering wheel and I had no battery left and went to turn the power down.
“We were losing about four-tenths of a lap just in power and it was so difficult holding them off. I was surprised we managed to do it for the first 10 laps or so.
“I can’t even remember now when they overtook […] I think the second stint and then we just went backwards thereafter so it’s a shame that we didn’t get to show any real potential of this car.”
When asked whether this problem dampens expectations for the upcoming race in Jeddah, especially since it’s expected to be cooler than Bahrain, he explained how they have a simple solution for this.
“No not at all and it’s nothing really to be concerned about. All we needed to do is put slightly bigger bodywork on.
“It may have cost us you know a quarter of a tenth but we wouldn’t have had to lose four-tenths in the engine.
“So our forecast of the conditions were incorrect so we need to go around that loop and ultimately it cost us a lot but you know the Red Bulls were well out in front. Maybe we could have fought for P3 or at least you know giving them a fight slightly earlier on. Difficult day.
“I think all of the teams have, you know, maybe five or six different cooling specifications. We went with our most aggressive option and clearly just went too far so it was it was just simply a decision that we chose the wrong bodywork for the conditions of today.”
“We’ve got plenty of margin to cool the engine more. We just chose the wrong one today.”
Looking ahead, Russell expects Mercedes to be looking stronger against Ferrari in future races as he believes Bahrain has been a strong circuit for the Scuderia in recent years.
“We’ve seen Ferrari have always been strong here in Bahrain and I’d argue this is a bit of a weak circuit for us.
“I think we’d be in that fight for P3 had it not been for the cooling issues today. Yesterday we showed the true potential of the car. Normally our race pace is faster in qualifying. Today we got it wrong.”
