When a team makes a claim about the performance of its cars, it’s true in most cases. For example, when Zak Brown and McLaren claimed that the MCL60 wouldn’t be competing toward the front of the field before the season even started, it proved to be true once the first race came along. And when they said that its upgrades in Austria would help become more competitive, that proved right too. But unlike McLaren, and most other teams, what Mercedes has said about the performance of the W14 hasn’t always reflected on track. And a statement George Russell made at the Austrian GP that contradicted Mercedes’ claims left veteran F1 journalist Peter Windsor confused. 

According to Windsor, in a YouTube live stream he did in the build-up to the British GP, “George said on Friday in Austria, ‘We knew this would be a tough circuit for us.’” The Austrian GP was a Sprint weekend, with qualifying for the race on Friday. Russell qualified in P11, while his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, qualified in P5. Hamilton’s short-run pace, combined with the data gathered from FP1 that suggested the Brackley team had good long-run pace as well, Russell’s statement made no sense to Windsor. And he had proof to back it up.

He said, “I’ve got mates at Mercedes, and they tell me that they were convinced that they would go really well in Austria. Really well.” What confused Windsor was why Russell needed to make a claim that went against his team’s analysis that everything would be fine. He concluded, “So what we heard from the drivers, from George, it was complete nonsense!”

While Windsor called Russell out for his contradictory statement, he also pointed out a problem at Mercedes. He said, “They thought they would go well, and here’s the problem: they don’t know what they were slow.”

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Mercedes had all the data to suggest it would be fast in Austria, but that didn’t reflect on track throughout the weekend. And if it can’t trust its data and figure out the problem, how could it have learned anything from the Austrian outing to improve?

Was the Austrian GP any help to George Russell & Co.?

Before the weekend started, Toto Wolff mentioned how Mercedes would concentrate on understanding the W14 in Austria. Given that the team had to revamp its car entirely before the Spanish GP, it’s still learning how it behaves. While Austria should’ve been a weekend to understand it better, the outing would’ve only confused the Brackley outfit further. 

Windsor also mentioned in his stream that “if your car goes well in Austria, there’s a pretty good chance it’s gonna go well at Silverstone.” While the Red Bull Ring hasn’t particularly been too strong a track for Mercedes in the past, Silverstone sure has been. With its upgraded front wing for the British GP, Mercedes would hope that even though it didn’t do too well in Austria, the team could turn its fortunes around at its home race. Whether or not Mercedes learned anything else, it sure understood that what shows in its data might not always reflect on track.

Why do you think George Russell claimed that Mercedes wouldn’t do well in Austria?

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