German team driver said Silver Arrows are "far off the pace" of Ferrari and Red Bull and stressed that Mercedes needs to make sure to "qualify ahead of the middle pack" in Montreal
Mercedes can't seem to find a solution to the never-ending problem of the kicks - now so intense that they make the W13 constantly hit the asphalt. In the first two free practices of F1 in Canada on Friday (17), once again the German team was faced with the issue.
George Russell, who was 6th and 7th in TL1 and TL2, respectively, regretted the Silver Arrows' performance at the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit. More than the result, which was reasonable for the young Briton - not so much for Lewis Hamilton -, the performance in Montreal disappointed.
"It's fun to drive on this circuit. Old school, very challenging, turbulent in the zebras. Our performance is obviously not what we want. We are far from the pace compared to the two teams in the front pack. We have Fernando (Alonso) and Sebastian (Vettel) strong here as well," Russell said.
"(Car) still very 'quicant', to be honest. The stiffness of these cars is brutal. I think in Baku, it was a combination of problems between the quiques and the car hitting the ground. Here, you really feel the stiffness, like in Monaco," he said. "We definitely can't use the zebras like we wanted to. The car bounces everywhere on the circuit. We have to make the car as smooth as possible, and there is something that is preventing us from doing that," he added.
"I think TL2 was the biggest setup 'deviation' I've had all season. We went in two drastically different directions, and we'll probably find the common ground between the two. We're working hard and need to make sure we qualify ahead of the pack in between," Russell concluded.
GRANDE PRÊMIO follows all the activities of the Canadian GP LIVE and IN REALTIME. On Saturday, TL3 is scheduled for 2pm (GMT-3), while qualifying starts at 5pm.