Russell: Solving porpoising would cure 99% of Mercedes' problems

George Russell says that if Mercedes can get a hold on the chronic porpoising issues impacting its W13, it would solve 99% of its problems.

The second round of the 2022 F1 world championship in Jeddah saw Mercedes' drivers struggle once again with their Silver Arrow, to the extent that Lewis Hamilton suffered a shock elimination in Q1 on Saturday.

Russell qualified further up the field, thanks to a different set-up. But the Briton finished only fifth on race day, 22 seconds adrift from fourth-place man Sergio Perez, while Hamilton was a distant tenth.

Russell reiterated that there was no simple fix to the W13's bouncing plight which he says is rooted in a multitude of factors.

"There's so many factors at play between the mechanical stiffness of the car and then the stiffness of the floors, the design of the floors, tyre pressures," Russell explained.

"Engine mode as well, the faster you go the worse it gets, so it makes it harder for qualifying because we turn the engines up, maximum power, go quicker down the straight which causes more downforce and causes more porpoising.

"So we almost need to pre-empt this issue and also in the race when you have the DRS closed, you have more downforce than you do with the DRS open, and that's another factor we need to consider.

"We're still learning and that's why we're far from optimal. But that's why I said if we solve the porpoising, that would cure I would say 99% of our issues."

• Read also: 'It all hit the fan', admits Hamilton after P10 in Jeddah

With each session, Mercedes is learning more about its predicament. But Russell says the team needs more than "baby steps" to make significant progress.

"We definitely got information, we're continuing to learn," he said.

"At the moment we're making baby steps so we need to make some leaps and bounds, and we're struggling to find that silver bullet to resolve our issues.

"I've got no doubt when we do that, we will find a chunk of lap time, but as I said before it's easier said than done."

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