“We’re way off the pace,” George Russell notes, Mercedes being slower than Red Bull and Ferrari after the Bahrain GP Free Practice performance.

Mercedes are gearing up for another successful year, claiming their 9th consecutive Constructors’ Title in the 2022 Formula One Championship. The Silver Arrows are hoping to start their season with a win at the Bahrain GP. The driver line-up of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell look promising to win races too.

But both riders were badly off the pace as the pair failed to claim a single top-three position after the first day of practice. Mercedes is still struggling with porpoises that have severely hindered the team from getting the most out of the W13.

George Russell explained that the car is severely lacking in pace compared to its Red Bull and Ferrari rivals. Despite managing to finish P4 in the rankings, the Brit has stated that “Tempo just isn’t there‘ and the Silver Arrows still have a lot to do. This comes after Trackside engineer Andrew Shovlin explained that the team didn’t “handle it as well as other teams”.

Also read: Key takeaways from the first two practice sessions at the Bahrain GP

George Russell: “WWe are certainly not where we want to be“

Lewis Hamilton drove his best time of the day 1:34:943. While teammate George Russell clocked the fastest time 1:32.529 on a number of softs during FP2. The rookie outperformed the seven-time world champion on both occasions, finishing P4 in FP1 and FP2. Hamilton, on the other hand, only finished P7 and P9 in the two sessions. Russell addressed the issues Mercedes faced in his interview.

russel said “It’s all about the lap time and we’re still a long way from where we want to be. I think we’ve made a bit of progress in solving some issues but the pace isn’t there at all at the moment so we really need to go through the data tonight to understand why we’re both struggling a bit with the car .”