Williams looking to apply 'ideas' Russell gathered at Mercedes

Williams says it will look to implement over the winter a few ideas suggested by George Russell in the wake of his outing with Mercedes in Bahrain.

Williams agreed to loan its top driver to Mercedes for the Sakhir GP in the wake of Lewis Hamilton's positive coronavirus test.

Russell made the most of the opportunity, qualifying second behind teammate Valtteri Bottas but comprehensively outpacing the Finn on race day, leading proceedings until a pitstop blunder from his Mercedes crew destroyed his race.

But the one-off weekend with the Black Arrows outfit provided Russell with some useful knowledge, some of which he cannot divulge, and a few pointers for improving things at Williams, including its car's start system.

"It's something he's mentioned," said Dave Robson. Williams' head of vehicle performance.

"He did a particularly good [start in the Mercedes], and he has had some good starts in our car, but I think what we're lacking is the consistency.

"It's probably as much down to what they do on their car, than it is the driver.

"So he's got some ideas, particularly about how he might like to change the clutch paddle, so the sort of ergonomics of what they do. That's something we can look at over the winter.

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"I think probably the whole drivetrain systems are a bit too different, but what tends to be more interesting is the tyre preparation and how you understand the grip that you're going to have at the start, and therefore what the clutch target is.

"There's probably something for us to learn about there I think."

Robson stressed that not everything Russell learned and is entitled to divulge can be directly carried over to Williams, but a few general ideas could prove useful.
"The fundamental car pace is probably so different, so we can't just make our car like there's, as simply as he [Russell] would obviously like," he said.

"But once we sit down with him properly, we may change the way we prioritise things."

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