"True joy" Mercedes made Williams return "so much harder" - Russell

George Russell

"True joy" Mercedes made Williams return "so much harder" - Russell

Russell finished 15th on his return to the team in Abu Dhabi

Ewan Gale

Friday 18 December 2020 09:29

George Russell has revealed the difficulty he faced in returning to Williams following his 'substitute' appearance for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes.

Following his superb performance for Mercedes in the Sakhir Grand Prix weekend while Hamilton was self-isolating after contracting Covid-19, it was back to reality for Russell during the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP with Williams.

The 22-year-old has explained his experience of the two cars - the W11 compared to the FW43 - meant it was easier to integrate into the championship-winning team even though he is more familiar with his surroundings at Williams.

Article continues under video

"[It was] actually harder jumping back to the Williams because the Mercedes car is so good," he explained. "It is what every driver wants from a racecar.

"The driver is in control of the Mercedes whereas sometimes it feels like our car is controlling the driver. We have to react to it whereas, in the Mercedes, we are the ones controlling it.

"I think it is only natural when you have got a great car underneath you. It's a true joy to drive and that's why maybe I got up to speed relatively quickly."

Russell's race at the Yas Marina Circuit en route to 15th was straightforward as strategy allowed him to jump Antonio Giovinazzi, while he comfortably had the pace to outrun team-mate Nicholas Latifi and both Haas.

But the car again had its difficulties, further underlining the disparity between the Williams and Mercedes as the latter rarely encountered issues across the season.

"We were really on the limits of brake temperature," he said. "We were really having to manage the brakes, which was managing how you attack the brake, what brake balance you use, which then consequently hurts the tyres.

"I couldn't attack the brakes and then the tyre temperatures were dropping but the track was getting colder so I needed to attack the corners to get the tyre temperature up and it was on this knife's edge all race.

"Actually, it was a very well managed and executed race with all of the little gremlins in the background but with the track temp dropping, you need to be able to push the car to the absolute limits and we couldn't really do that."