'Cars Were Pretty Similar': Russell Counters Hamilton In Setup Claims

Monday, 04 March 2024 at 15:30

George Russell didn't feel like his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, ran a different setup at the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix that would cost him a better result.

The Silver Arrows had an interesting first race week of the new F1 season at the Bahrain International Circuit. Initially, things were looking surprisingly good when Russell managed to qualify third on Friday.

However, his teammate placed only ninth, and after the qualifying, Hamilton blamed the worse result on the setup, which should have been more focused on the race rather than the qualifying.

But even in the race, the 39-year-old finished behind his 13 years younger teammate, who, at the time, was even in a fight for a podium spot. However, the British driver, and most of the teams with Mercedes engine, were stopped by power unit issues, which was overheating.

As a result, the teams were forced to tune down their engines, which eventually cost them a better result. Russell, after finishing two spots ahead of the seven-time World Champion, claimed that he felt the two cars had a similar setup after his teammate said the opposite.

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“"Many people have said this, I don’t really know the big differences to be honest because as far as I’m aware, but the cars were pretty similar. And as I said, I didn’t really focus too much on his setup."”

According to the 26-year-old, his car was actually set even more for the race than his teammate's, completely contradicting what Hamilton previously said. Still, Russell admitted that conditions had changed and that there were improvements to be made for the team.

“"Mine was actually more set up for the race than the setup he ran. At least it was on Friday. But the conditions changed today. I think it’s super sensitive for everybody. And yeah, we just need to go through everything."”