Russell admits Mercedes ‘stumbling’ as W17 starts cause concern

George Russell is concerned that the pace of his W17 won’t matter if he loses places off the line, with the driver conceding Mercedes is “stumbling” over its starts.

With race starts a worry for many of the teams, the FIA scheduled practice race starts from the grid at the end of Thursday and Friday’s two sessions. Lewis Hamilton was the big winner on Thursday.

George Russell concerned by Mercedes W17 race starts

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The Formula 1 drivers have been struggling with their launches in the all-new cars, a consequence of removing the MGU-H from the hybrid engine.

The MGU-H previously helped to cover up turbo lag across the lower rev range, and without it, the cars are taking more time to reach the ideal start configuration to successfully launch off the line.

Following safety concerns raised by the drivers and team principals, the FIA introduced a new blue lights process on Thursday, the lights flashing a few seconds ahead of the procedure to alert the drivers that it was about to begin.

But even with more time to prepare his Mercedes engine to launch, Russell came up short in the practice starts.

In one, he lined up with three other drivers, including Hamilton, but spun his tyres and went sideways before catching the car. Russell was overtaken by Hamilton, who jumped from third to first even before Turn 1, while Oliver Bearman in the Haas also got ahead of the Mercedes driver.

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Hamilton also got the better of Kimi Antonelli in the evening’s practice start. Following the Haas of Esteban Ocon as he overtook Liam Lawson, Max Verstappen, Ocon and then Antonelli to storm from fifth to first into Turn 1.

Russell concedes Mercedes still has a lot of work to do on its race starts.

“I think we’ve got a lot of potential beneath us,” Russell told PlanetF1.com and other media in Bahrain.

“But to win a race, you’ve also got to get off the line quite well, and I think the two starts I’ve made this week worse than my worst ever start in Formula One.

“Lewis, down in P11, got into P1.

“At this stage, I don’t think it matters how quick you are, the thing that’s going to trip you up is going to be that tallest hurdle, and that’s what we’re trying to get our heads around right now.

“And yeah, we’re stumbling on some at the moment.”

In contrast, Oliver Bearman, running the Ferrari-powered Haas, revealed he was very happy with his starts.

“Better than my best ever start,” Bearman joked in response to Russell’s comments. “No, no, I mean, it’s tough. It’s a bit more complicated than last year, that’s for sure.

“The procedure is much longer, but generally, we’ve been managing it quite well. I think there’s still a lot of variability, even between a good and a bad start, that the spread is much higher than last year and previous years.

“The step from ICE to when the K kicks in, that’s also a really important part of the start and that needs optimisation. We did a big step from last test to this test, but it’s still up and down.”

Additional reporting by Mat Coch Thomas Maher

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