George Russell Remains the Only F1 Driver on the Grid to Maintain This Impeccable 5-Race Streak

While at Williams, George Russell was hailed as “Mr. Saturday” due to his exceptional qualifying performance. He has now carried his consistency into Mercedes by finishing in the top 5 positions of every race this season. After a difficult qualifying session that saw him start P12 on the grid, the race start was difficult due to the hard tires not being up to temperature. Once his tires had the right temperature and grip, Russell soon managed to make up places and climb his way through the grid.

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From P12 to P5 at the 🏁 @GeorgeRussell63's run of consecutive top five finishes continues. 💪

10:48 PM · May 8, 2022

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He was fifth when he and Mercedes decided to extend the stint on the hard tires in a bid to capitalize on a late Safety Car or Virtual Safety Car. When the duo of Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly collided, it was then that Russell was able to take full advantage.

“I think it was a little bit fortunate,” Russell admitted. “You sound like a bit of a genius when things like that happen. But that’s the case when you’re on an offset strategy.”

This allowed him to pit for a fresh set of mediums and emerge seventh; behind his teammate Lewis Hamilton and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas. Eventually, Russell was able to pass both Hamilton and Bottas to finish fifth as the chequered flag fell.

Mercedes to ditch the “zero-pod” concept?

Mercedes’s Miami outing was way better than the one at Imola. With Lewis Hamilton out of the points last time out, it wasn’t the ideal situation for the German manufacturer. When asked if fifth and sixth is the best that the team could do at the moment, Russell gave a pragmatic answer.

“Five and six is where we deserve to be,” he said. “Obviously, we’ve probably underperformed at some of the circuits, especially on Saturdays, which makes it difficult for us.”“But for sure this weekend is where we’ve shown the most amount of promise. But we’re a long way a long way off still.”

There were a few upgrades the Brackley team had brought to the Miami weekend. These included a new rear, beam wing, and a new front wing, all in a bid to address the porpoising issue and improve their form. However, as teams reach Barcelona, there are considerations that they could be ditching the zero sidepod concept.

In an interview with Motorsport.com, Toto Wolff said, “Well I wouldn’t discount anything, but we need to give all our people benefit of the doubt.” “They have produced great race cars in the past and we believe that this is the route to go. Barcelona is definitely going to be a point in time where we are able to correlate with what we saw in February and gather more data.”

Barcelona will be a turning point as then Mercedes will have to decide what the next step will be for their chassis.

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