Mercedes driver George Russell has branded Formula One’s latest wave of cars as “dangerous” and admitted that he believes there is barely a matter of time before a significant incident occurs. Russell, who will start fifth on the grid on the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, was one in all several drivers complaining concerning the porpoising that his automotive was affected by, a feature that has plagued Russell’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton this season.
“It is unquestionably dangerous and it’s only a matter of time before we see a significant incident,” the 24-year-old said. “It’s brutal. We’re being shaken to pieces and I can barely see where to brake at the top of the straight because we’re bouncing around a lot.
“I don’t think we’re the one automotive. Half of the grid are in the identical boat, including Ferrari.
“Numerous us can barely keep the automotive in a straight line over the bumps and we’re going around the last two corners at 200mph, with concrete partitions either side of us, which shouldn’t be a snug position to be in.
“It’s unnecessary, with the technology that we’ve got, that we’re running a Formula One automotive millimetres from the bottom. It’s a recipe for disaster. I don’t know what the longer term holds but we cannot sustain this for 3 more years or nonetheless long these regulations are in place for.”
Mercedes chief Toto Wolff admitted that their automotive was “in every single place” during qualifying, as Hamilton finished two places behind Russell in P7. “The automotive is just in every single place with porpoising and bouncing, you name it”, the Austrian told Sky Sports F1. “It isn’t one thing… add to this we’re possibly not essentially the most efficient by way of drag, we’re losing greater than a second to Ferrari in straight-line speed, all of that makes us just not competitive.”
Mercedes were told that in the event that they were capable of get their porpoising under control then they might find a way to compete with Ferrari and Red Bull in Baku. During practice, Hamilton admitted that he was suffering again with the porpoising. “The toughest thing about today was the bouncing,” Hamilton said on Friday. “We’re hitting serious speeds at the top of the straight and bottoming out. We’re facing the identical problems as within the last race.
“We tried something experimental on my automotive within the second session, it didn’t feel great but at the very least we tried it and we got some useful data to undergo. We’ll probably revert to the unique set-up tomorrow.”
Hamilton has avoided a grid penalty following an investigation into claims he drove unnecessarily during an incident with Lando Norris at the top of Q2.
