Mercedes just can't seem to find it: 'Complete different set-ups'

The CanadianGrand Prix, one of Lewis Hamilton's favorite circuits, will in all likelihood not be won by Mercedes this year. The problems are still piling up and the team is still searching. George Russell predicts an important, but tricky qualifying session.

While criticism of Mercedes is growing, due to Wolff's call for the FIA to help them with the porpoising, the team's one lap pace at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is not yet going smoothly. After the first two practice sessions, the team is still looking for the right balance in the car. Hamilton sounded very dissatisfied after Friday, Russell sounds a bit more positive but does think that his team is significantly lacking over one fast lap.

Indeed, according to the young Briton, Mercedes is far from the pace of Red Bull Racing and Ferrari. Russell also warns against the fast Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. In a Mercedes press statement, Russell reported, "The stiffness of these cars is really brutal. We can't cut the kerbs like we did before. We have tuned the car as 'soft' as possible, but it doesn't work." This is exactly the major point of debate currently in the paddock. The cars have already been tuned to the maximum or minimum, but the bumpiness just doesn't seem to abate.

Max Verstappen, Jacques Villeneuve, and Robert Kubica have already been very critical of the team, but Mercedes just can't seem to find the solutions, no matter how hard they search. On Friday in Canada, they were again searching. Russell: "In FP2 Lewis and I went in completely different directions in terms of set-up, so we might find a good middle ground on the night. We need to qualify ahead of the midfield. In fact, we have a fast race car that is probably the third fastest, but if we allow one or two cars in front of us, it will be very difficult."

The fact that Mercedes still has the fastest car after Red Bull Racing and Ferrari make it hard for some in F1 to believe that the team really has so many problems with porpoising. Kubica, for example, cannot believe that the team cannot solve its own problems. According to Villeneuve and Verstappen, it is mainly a matter of adjusting the ride height and thus taking risks or compromising.