Piastri spoke too soon? Russel's fiery title charge fueled for Austrian GP

17:58, 23 Jun

byNorberto Mujica

George Russell has so far gotten everything he can out of his Mercedes W16. It hasn't been enough for him to mount a title challenge, as Oscar Piastri current championship leader noted. But could that be about to change?

Mercedes has been struggling with rear tyre overheating since the ground-effect regulations were introduced. Although the team tested a revamped rear suspension to counter this in Imola, it did not yield the desired effect. Nevertheless, the learnings from the race in Italy did pay off in Canada, Mercedes' Deputy Technical Director Simone Resta acknowledged when speaking on the German team's Canadian Grand Prix debrief on their youtube channel.

“First of all we brought to Canada a development on the floor and also on the front brake,” the Italian said.

“Also, we tested again on Friday a rear suspension that was tested before in Imola and then we confirmed it on Friday and we raced it on Saturday and Sunday."

'Mercedes seeks incremental gains, not game changing development'

Speaking about the win George Russell was able to nab in Canada, Resta pointed to the conditions but also to the team pushing the car forward in general.

“I think every race we try to bring something and there are incremental steps, so they’re not game changers and they always help, but I think that our car was particularly well suited to this condition and also we worked quite a lot on the set-up and the approach to the drivers and I think we made a step with the car overall.”

George Russell won the Canadian Grand Prix

Mercedes to bring more updates to Austrian GP

The Italian engineer then revealed Mercedes' development is set to continue in Austria. “I would sign everywhere to repeat it, but I’m sure it’s not going to be that easy and clearly we learned a lot from the start of the season in those conditions.”

“Like I mentioned, we learned some characteristics in Imola, in Spain and I think we’ll be building step by step let’s say our understanding going into Austria."

“Of course, we’ve got also new parts coming onto the car in those races that they will always help in improving the performance, so let’s see what we can get in Austria,” Resta concluded.

With Russell still within touch of Oscar Piastri in the drivers' standings, it will be particularly interesting if Mercedes can indeed replicate the level of performance shown in Canada.

When Piastri was asked about Russell potentially inserting himself in the championship fight, making it a four-way with the Aussie, the Briton, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen all being involved in the championship fight, Piastri suggested it was not to be the case. Spielberg will dictate if the championship leader spoke too soon indeed or not.