George Russell says he is trying to understand the persistent performance variations between himself and Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton this season, noting that the two drivers have almost never been on the same pace on a race weekend.
During his debut season with Mercedes, Russell outscored Hamilton in the Drivers’ standings but this year the seven-time world champion has had the upper hand over his younger colleague.
Hamilton’s advantage at the checkered flag in the last two races was particularly wide, but Russell believes that his deficit in Austin and in Mexico was circumstantial.
“I’m feeling good with the new upgrades, to be honest,” Russell said on Thursday in Sao Paulo upon his return to the venue where he captured last year his maiden Grand Prix win.
“The last two races have been really poor, for different reasons, they haven’t been very intuitive races with the limitations that we’ve had.
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“So I had to do massive management last weekend because of the brakes, massive management in Austin because of the fuel, so I’m not sitting here scratching my head why the pace isn’t there, because I know that without these things the pace will be there.
“It was just a couple of unfortunate events that were the reason, so I’m kind of glad we’ve got this weekend here in Brazil, I don’t foresee we’ll have any of these limitations and we’ll see where we’ll fall out.”
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Russell admitted that his recent races pretty much summed up his “scrappy” 2023 campaign.
“It’s been a really challenging year, especially in contrast with last year, when every race seemed to be sort of going our way, in the rhythm, loads of things,” he said. “And this year has been very scrappy.”
The 25-year-old Briton also noted how the performance this year has ebbed and flowed from one side of the Mercedes garage to the other, be it in qualifying or on race day.
But while taking turns as the quicker driver is nothing unusual, the disparity in pace between the two drivers on any given day has left Russell and Mercedes – and likely also Hamilton – rather perplexed.
“It’s a good question, that’s definitively something we’ve noticed, Lewis and I, over the course of the year, I don’t think we’ve ever been on the same pace,” he said.
“I think over the last two years our qualifying record is almost the same, but it’s either one driver is 0.4s or 0.6s ahead or it’s the other. It’s something we’re trying to understand.
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“I think, often, when you’re slightly on the back foot, as a driver, you’re chasing to close that gap, and sometimes, in doing so, you take a step back, rather than naturally close that gap, so it’s something I’m trying to figure out myself, and I’m sure he’s trying to figure out as well.”
Russell didn’t believe that a contrast in driving styles between himself and Hamilton could account for the divergence.
“I think there are definitively small differences in driving style, but the underlying limitations that we have are exactly the same,” he explained.
“What we’re chasing is exactly the same, but I think that, as we saw last week, Formula 1 is so complex with these tyres, and it doesn’t take a lot of changing your driving style, how you approach a corner, how you attack a corner, to have a substantial impact for good or for bad on the tyres.
“We, as drivers, definitively have our differences, which favor me in certain circuits and favor him in others, so I’m trying to learn from him on those circuits, I’m sure he’s trying to learn from me on the circuits where I’m ahead as well.”
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