“I pressed neutral at one point instead of something else”- George Russell still not thorough with Mercedes’ steering buttons

“I pressed neutral at one point instead of something else”- George Russell explains his difficulty in settling into Mercedes’ car.

George Russell even without any prior preparation managed to give great results with Mercedes’ car and will start the race from the first row for the very first time in his career.

Despite such an impactful performance, Russell is struggling with certain elements in the car, with which he naturally needs time to settle in before he gets used to, though he doesn’t have any time to be comfortable with the car.

“I guess arguably I probably would’ve been better off if I’d just came in with an open mind and not raced this circuit – or at least half of this circuit – last week,” he told to the Motorsport.

“Because I spent all last week breaking at ‘this point’, turning at ‘this point at Turn 1’ and ‘doing this, doing that’. And this car is just completely different.”

“Then all the procedures – learning new procedures, learning new buttons. FP1 was a mess – pressing the wrong buttons here and there,” he said.

Williams routine still in play

The biggest reason for such mistakes as pointed out by Russell is that he is coming from a routine with Williams which has been ingrained in him since last two seasons, and a sudden shift doesn’t make one forget things.

“You don’t even think about these things and it just naturally happens. “[Mercedes has] been trying to modify as much as physically possible just to make things easier for me.

“It’s been a lot of work and still takes a bit of time – it takes a couple of races just to understand all of that.” Russell then jokingly appealed to Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff that more time aboard the W11 would rectify the situation, saying: “Toto, a few more races please and I’ll be there!”

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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