Mercedes driver George Russell wasn’t happy with the handling of his car during practice ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Russell was the second-fastest driver under the lights in FP2, only trailing Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin.
But he will still want Mercedes to fix an issue he reported during the session in Jeddah.
Russell lapped just over two tenths slower than Alonso as he bids to improve upon his third-place showing in Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying last weekend.
He’d also shown a decent turn of speed in FP1, finishing within three tenths of Max Verstappen’s benchmark in fourth.
Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton wasn’t entirely happy on Thursday either, telling his team during the afternoon running that they needed to fix a bouncing issue.
George Russell bemoans lack of stability in Mercedes car
Speaking over the team radio in the early part of the session, Russell lamented a lack of stability through the high-speed corners.
The Jeddah Corniche Circuit is the second-fastest of the season by average speed, only behind Monza in Italy.
Russell and the Silver Arrows, then, will be especially determined to address the problem ahead of qualifying and the race.
“[The] car is so so unstable high speed, so so unstable high speed,” he said.
Mercedes may need to make tweaks to revised car
Ahead of the on-track action in Saudi Arabia, one journalist spotted a lower-downforce rear wing on the W15.
The Brackley outfit may still need to optimise their updated challenger on a track that, in the words of Verstappen, is ‘completely different’ to Bahrain.
Russell will nonetheless be the happier of the two drivers after day one, having outpaced Hamilton in both FP1 and FP2.
Former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve expects to be a more ‘aggressive’ version of the Briton this term as he prepares to become the team ‘leader’.
It’s Russell’s final season alongside Hamilton as the 39-year-old gets ready to pack his bags for a shock switch to Ferrari in 2025.
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