George Russell put the Mercedes W15 second on the front row in sprint qualifying for the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix, beaten only by McLaren driver Lando Norris. Lewis Hamilton in the other Mercedes ended up a full four tenths of a second behind and only in seventh place. And former Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher has a thesis as to why this is the case.
In an interview with Sky, Schumacher said he “definitely” recognized a sub-optimal set-up in Hamilton. “It came up a few times: he always had a little catch when it came to it.”
Maybe because Hamilton wanted to impose his will on the car too much? “I’ll put it this way: I always called it the stubbornness of old age,” says Schumacher, who was 32 years old in his last Formula 1 year in 2007. Hamilton is now 39 years old.
Schumacher explains: “If you have a lot of experience, have driven a lot. Of course he has achieved an incredible number of successes. But then you have a certain sweet spot, a certain idea of a car, how it should work. Then you try adjust the car accordingly, but not the driving style.”
A younger driver finds it easier to get involved with the vehicle. A younger driver “listens to the engineer,” says Schumacher, and a younger driver also accepts tips. “You’re actually a little less able to do that as you get older.”
What Toto Wolff says about the Hamilton form
When asked by Sky, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff confirms that the set-up of the W15 was at least partly responsible for Hamilton’s large gap to Russell when he said: “It was a set-up story and tire temperature. But it was also a bit unhappy with the traffic.”
The key to a fast lap in qualifying is to “get the first lap right before the fast lap” and to get the tire temperature optimal, explains Wolff. “(Hamilton) isn’t always in the right place.”
Schumacher interjects: “You can say it was just the set-up. Or you can say: When it comes to the last tenth, the year of birth becomes an issue at some point. Today’s Formula 1 is different. We were back then Sprints. There’s a lot more experience today, isn’t there?”
Wolff: “I don’t think it is, to be honest. Lewis trains differently, he prepares differently. He has a completely new environment when it comes to physio. I don’t see any deficits there.”
“It’s just like this: These cars are different to drive. I also think that it’s not intuitive for Lewis. He brakes late, he lets the car run into the corner at real speed. And that creates understeer. That means He has to drive differently than he wants.”
Only Russell shines for Mercedes
And things went well for Russell in the sister car. Or as Wolff puts it: “Pleasing.” Because Russell was “always among the fastest” in sprint qualifying and finished second behind Norris, 0.063 seconds behind.
But: Russell didn’t start the race weekend well either because Mercedes “were not sorted out” in the first free practice session, as Wolff explains. “We were a second behind and simply never had the tire in the right window. We also had the wrong set-up. But good decisions were made between the two sessions.” And suddenly Russell was at the forefront.
Russell’s mysterious “moment” in Q3
“The car was really good,” says the Mercedes driver appreciatively in an interview with Sky. “And once you get into the rhythm here, this track is one of the best. The track is so fast. I drove fully for the first time in the fast corners, right at the end on my last lap in Q3.”
But this hard pace came at a price: According to Russell, his high cornering speed “messed up the drive a bit”. He explains: “I don’t know how much I lost, but I had a big ‘recharge’ on corner exit after going full throttle.”
Russell doesn’t explain his mishap in more detail, but only adds: “Technically, that’s a bit too far out for this interview. But it was a bit annoying because I had just managed the lap and lost it again at the exit of the corner. “
What the data says about it
In any case, the scene can be clearly seen in the data analysis by F1 Tempo: The comparison of the two fastest Russell laps (1:21.286 vs. 1:21.075 minutes) points to turn 14. In his last attempt, Russell drove up to nine km/h faster – but not at full throttle, but with a slight lift. When accelerating out, eight km/h is missing. Only at turn 15 do the speed lines equalize again.
What else happened: During his “full throttle” attempt, Russell remained completely in eighth gear, where until then he had downshifted to seventh gear. And in contrast to a “normal” lap, the speed dropped from just under 11,000 revolutions per minute to just over 9,500 rpm. Loss of time: about four hundredths of a second. So that alone doesn’t make the difference to P1.
Praise for Russell from team boss Wolff
Team boss Wolff still attests to Russell’s “very good” performance, especially when you consider that McLaren driver Norris was “extremely strong”. “George was totally there,” says Wolff. “And with Lewis we see: He just has so much understeer in the car. We have to try to do better for Saturday.”
Incidentally, Hamilton himself only comments on sprint qualifying in passing. Things “didn’t go particularly well” for him. Given Russell’s form, he assumes that he can run a “strong race”. For him personally, it will be about “moving forward,” says Hamilton. Postscript: “Unfortunately it will be difficult to fight for victory from my starting position, but we’ll see.”
Russell wants victory in the sprint
Meanwhile, Russell is aiming for victory: “McLaren is fighting for the World Cup, but we have nothing to lose. We want to get the big result. So we will try to get off to a good start.”
That’s entirely in the spirit of Wolff, who adds: “I think it’s about taking the lead. We don’t have much to lose. So George can perform dynamically. And the race pace looks good. But we’re just over the long run “The cars are so close together. I guess overtaking will be quite difficult.”
Source: www.sport.de
