George Russell points finger at Mercedes over 'wrong' decisions at Bahrain GP

02 March 2024 , 18:51

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George Russell eventually finished fifth in Bahrain (Image: Sky Sports)

George Russell confessed that his and Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes both struggled with engine issues during the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Brit qualified in third but eventually finished fifth as the Silver Arrows came home behind both Red Bulls and both Ferraris. Russell had jumped up to second early in the race, but issues with a lack of power eventually saw him tumble down the order, which he complained about over team radio.

Russell confessed those issues meant they were unable to unearth the true potential of the Mercedes, which appears to be closer to their rivals than it has been in recent years. The 26-year-old also claimed the team's failure to predict the conditions proved to be very costly.

He said: "We both faced a similar problem (with Lewis Hamilton ) for some reason we had massive engine overheating and the battery wasn't working properly. I made a really good start, got into second and then suddenly I had these big red alarms on my steering wheel and I had no battery left, we had to turn the power down, we were loosing about four-tenths a lap just in power.

"It's a shame that we didn't get to show any real potential of this car, so a bit of a strange day. It's nothing really to be concerned about all we needed to do was put a slightly bigger bodywork on. Our forecast of the conditions were incorrect so we need to go round that loop and ultimately it cost us a lot.

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"I think all of the teams have maybe five or six different cooling specifications and we went with our most aggressive option and clearly just went too far, it was just simply a decision that we chose the wrong bodywork for the conditions of today."

The Mercedes couldn't hold off the Ferraris

By the time the chequered flag came down Russell was more than 46 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton meanwhile, who finished seventh behind the McLaren of Lando Norris, was 50 seconds off the flying Dutchman.

Mercedes, who have only won one race over the past two seasons, had performed impressively in practice and suggested they could be about to return to the front of the grid before their somewhat underwhelming display. Hamilton though admits they are further away from the Red Bulls than they anticipated.

He said: "We probably feel a bit of disappointment within the team, I'm not sure about everyone else. I was definitely hoping that we would be better this weekend then we were, but it was a tough race, it was very close with everybody and degradation is high with the car. There is plenty of areas we can improve. We were further back from the Red Bulls then we thought as well."

Samuel Meade