Russell wants to limit damage: 'Some problems solved, but pace lacking'

At Mercedes, the problems do not seem to be solved yet. Especially Lewis Hamilton complained on the board radio during the second free practice. George Russell was however a lot faster than his teammate, but he too emphasizes that the problems are not yet solved.

Russell finished in fourth place during FP2, more than half a second behind Max Verstappen's fastest time. He did manage to set a faster time than his new teammate Hamilton, who finished over 1.2 seconds behind on P9.

The seven-time world champion himself indicates that the problems are far from being solved, and Russell also agrees. "We are definitely not where we want to be. We have solved some problems, but the pace is not there yet. We are far from the pace of Red Bull and Ferrari, and also AlphaTauri. We still have some work to do," he told Sky Sports.

Mercedes wants to limit damage

Where other teams seem to have already solved the porpoising problem, the W13 is still extremely bothered by it. In Hamilton's case, problems with the DRS and the brakes were also added. Russell says that for now, the team must learn to live with the problems to get the most out of the weekend.

"Maybe there's a reason, but we're not really happy with the car at the moment. Everything we try is one step forward, two steps back. We were all hoping to fix it before this weekend, but as things stand, we're not in the fight. We can't change anything drastically, so we have to try to limit the damage," said the Mercedes driver.