George Russell Defends Mercedes’ New Floor Amid Zandvoort Struggles: ‘Upgrade Not to Blame

George Russell assured that Mercedes' new floor is performing as anticipated, despite the issues encountered at Zandvoort. He stated, "I am certain the floor is functioning as we expected, and I believe the challenges we experienced at Zandvoort were not a result of the upgrade."

George Russell is of the opinion that Mercedes' recent floor design did not contribute to their challenging F1 weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Mercedes faced a challenging race on Sunday at Zandvoort, ultimately securing seventh and eighth place finishes.

Approaching the Dutch Grand Prix, Mercedes was the team to beat, having secured victories in three out of the last four races.

The cause of their slow performance was uncertain, with Toto Wolff implying that insufficient practice in dry conditions contributed to their subpar showing.

Mercedes' latest improvement to their car's floor design garnered interest when it was unveiled at the Belgian Grand Prix, although it was subsequently set aside for the rest of the event.

Mercedes' technical director, James Allison, has confessed that they are still uncertain whether it is functioning as planned.

During a media session at Monza, which included Crash.net, Russell provided insights into the situation concerning the floor.

"This weekend will give us another chance to evaluate it," he stated. "In the end, introducing an upgrade to the car might improve its performance by a tenth or two at most, but the performance varies by several tenths from race to race. If you have a poor weekend when you introduce an upgrade, it's easy to blame it on the upgrade. However, if you race six consecutive times with the same setup, your performance can differ by half a second compared to your competitors."

“I believe the floor is performing as anticipated, and I don't think the issues we encountered at Zandvoort were caused by the upgrade. We have another chance this weekend.”

"Perhaps we could try a new approach after Monza. I believe it's functioning as anticipated."

Reflecting on the Zandvoort race, Russell acknowledged that Mercedes did not perform to their potential and are aiming for a stronger showing at Monza this weekend.

"In Zandvoort, we didn't perform as well as we had hoped," he stated. "We had several theories about the reasons behind this. It was a tough weekend, marked by very strong winds and an old, slippery tarmac. McLaren performed exceptionally well, but I am optimistic that this week will be better based on what we learned in Zandvoort. One of the adjustments we made to the car wasn't quite aligned with our goals."

"It wasn't immediately apparent during the race weekend. It became clear only after we analyzed the data that this was where we fell short. We must prevent this from happening again and progress."

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