Hamilton did very well in the sprint race in Shanghai. He finished second, just behind Max Verstappen from Red Bull. This showed that the Mercedes car is good at racing for long periods, even though it struggles in single-lap speed.
George Russell, from Mercedes, said Hamilton’s performance proved that they can get good results if they start higher on the grid. They are working hard to understand why their car doesn’t perform as well on fresh tires.
“Lewis proved that if you can get on the right side of that qualifying group and gaggle of cars, we can go on to score a podium,” Russell said. “The potential was there in Bahrain, and Lewis did it [in the sprint]. If that was a main grand prix, he would still probably have finished P3.”
But Russell knows that qualifying is tough for them. He said, “We’re in that fight. We know we have a faster race car, nine times out of 10, than we do a qualifying car.”
During the sprint race, Mercedes was quicker than some other teams like Aston Martin and McLaren, but a bit slower than Ferrari. This has been a trend for them in the past few years.
Russell said, “But we’re not content with where we are. We’ve got a lot of work to do. And we’re all in this fight for best of the rest.”
Hamilton was disappointed in the qualifying session. He got knocked out early and had to start the race in 18th place.
Russell said it was surprising to see Hamilton so far back. He believes Hamilton is the best driver and shouldn’t be in that position.
“But we’re here together as a team. And collectively, we just need to keep on pushing forward and try to make some big gains as the season goes on,” Russell added.
