Mercedes debutant George Russell has been getting to grips with his new car in F1 pre-season testing in Barcelona. The F1 pre-season testing phase is all about drivers getting to know their car and flagging any concerns before their build is complete and the F1 campaign gets underway on March 20. Having completed a switch from Williams in the off-season, the 24-year-old has been sharing testing duties with team veteran Lewis Hamilton at Spain’s Circuit de Catalunya. However, Russell is cautious about Mercedes’ performance, despite Hamilton leading the charts on the final day of pre-season testing. After a restrained first two days, the seven-time world champion set the fastest time of the week late on the final day of testing in Barcelona.
As per BBC Sport, Hamilton set the fastest time of Formula 1’s first 2022 pre-season test as he surpassed his new teammate’s quickest lap, who had set the pace in the morning session. The 37-year-old clocked one minute 19.138 seconds on Friday and was 0.095 seconds quicker than his new team-mate (1:19.233 seconds), as the pair set their fastest times on the softest tyre compound available.
Hamilton, who’s in search of an unprecedented eighth world title next season, sealed a Mercedes one-two ahead of Red Bull in Barcelona. Russell is of the opinion of not getting carried away by it and said fans shouldn’t look into their times too much, before pointing at Ferrari and McLaren were looking strong.
“Lap time-wise, I don’t think it’s representative at all,” the publication quoted Russell.
“Even though we are top of the timesheets, I wouldn’t read too much into it,” he added.
“We have some improvements to make, as we’re not fully happy with the balance of the car and the limitations we have currently. But we have a good indication of the direction we need to go in,” Russell further added.
Meanwhile, Hamilton shared his thoughts on the first round of testing and said, “It’s been an interesting few days. It’s not been the easiest or smoothest running. We have had some obstacles to overcome.”
“We would always want more laps but I am happy with today – we have had 100 laps, which for a half-day wasn’t too bad,” he added.
When asked whether he had any idea where the team were in terms of competitiveness ahead of the new season, “You never do in the first week. We have no idea where we are,” he concluded.
At this moment, the time set in testing is for sure important but not the only goal. F1 teams often prefer to cloak their cars’ true performance until absolutely necessary. The real deal will be unleashed once the wheels are set rolling in Bahrain in March.
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