“No Excuses”: George Russell Gives Up on Mercedes’ Revival Hope as Glaring W14 Weaknesses Pop Up Amid Toto Wolff’s Berated Comments

Firstly, it was Lewis Hamilton who called the W14 unpredictable. Then Toto Wolff agreed with him and made a “nasty” comment about the W14. Now George Russell has joined the party as hopes for the W14’s revival seem bleak. The 25-year-old has given up on the W14 as the list of weaknesses of the ZeroPod concept just keeps on getting bigger and bigger. Let’s find out what Russell said about the W14.

Mercedes’ performance during the qualifying in the last couple of races has been shocking. George Russell went out in Q2 at Baku and now Lewis Hamilton at Miami. Toto Wolff was recently questioned about the W14’s performance to which he suggested that it’s not a nice car to drive. Wolff explained how it lacks performance everywhere and is very unpredictable from session to session without any explanation. Wolff went on to call it a ‘nasty piece of work’. 

George Russell saw eye to eye with Toto Wolff as he explained how Mercedes topped FP1 at Miami and subsequently fell down the order without any specific reason. Azerbaijan was the same where the pace was unpredictable. Russell suggested that there are 5 tracks like these on the F1 calendar and the Mercedes is clearly slower on these kinds of street tracks. There seem to be some balance issues as well as bouncing problems. 

According to motorsport.com, George Russell said “The car just doesn’t work for us this weekend. We struggle a lot with the balance and also bounce a bit. I think many teams thought the latter was a thing of the past, but here it seems to be happening again for a number of cars. There are some theories, but I have no explanation for bouncing.” [Translated using Google]

Talking about similar tracks with unpredictable performance, he said, “There are no excuses, but there are probably five circuits like this season: Bahrain, Baku, Miami, Monaco, and Singapore. We get some of these jobs as early as the beginning of the year. The fact is that we are short of pace at any circuit. On some jobs we are a little faster and on some jobs a little slower. Here we are clearly a little slower.”

Read More: Despite Being 4th Best in Baku, George Russell Sends a Threat to F1 Rivals on Mercedes’ Behalf: “No Reason Why We Can’t…”

Mercedes clearly seems to be struggling on the street circuits. The upgrades promised for the Azerbaijan GP did not arrive and now Mercedes has to work with what they have until the upgrades are ready. However, Lewis Hamilton getting out in Q2 was not so much about the car but the strategy of the team to send him out very late in Q2.

Lewis Hamilton opens up about the terrible Miami Qualifying 

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes looked like they could make the Q3 at the Miami GP qualifying. Mercedes sent Lewis Hamilton out at the very end with hopes of getting a greener track to maximize the potential. However, they made a mistake as Hamilton was stuck behind 7 cars trying to start a flying lap and, as a result, were backing down. This meant Hamilton lost the temperature in his tires, which subsequently cost him lap time.

According to Formula1.com, Lewis Hamilton said “You know, not the best, I was hoping there were a couple of moments where the car was feeling half-decent and I thought that maybe I would be able to get into Q3.”

“But at the end there I went out, they put me out behind seven cars – or something like that – so when I got to the last corner I was like the last of the group. [I] had to back up and lost all my temperature in the tires, so when I started the lap I just had no grip.”

Watch this Story: George Russell Sends a Feisty Response to Max Verstappen’s D**khead Jibe in Azerbaijan

What do you make of George Russell’s statements?