Russell's Mercedes learnings not guaranteed to aid Williams recovery

Ewan Gale
Wednesday 7 April 2021 10:13

Williams driver George Russell has warned not all of his experience of driving for Mercedes is transferrable to Williams as the team aims to push through the order.

Russell made a one-off appearance for the world championship-winning constructor at last season's Sakhir Grand Prix in place of the Covid-stricken Lewis Hamilton, picking up his first points in Formula 1.

Whilst the British driver has taken Mercedes' detailed approach back to Williams, Russell is wary it is not always possible to transfer processes between teams.

"The Mercedes way is very analytical and very in-depth in certain details which I've been able to carry over," said Russell.

"How their engineers work is just interesting and I can almost take a bit of both [teams] and almost merge them together to see what works best for myself.

"Equally minor details from what I learned with the data there and try to implement a bit of that here are all coming in handy.

"But at the end of the day Formula 1 is very dynamic and you need to learn how to get the most out of your machine and if it works in a Mercedes it doesn't mean it works in a Williams."

Russell finished the first race of this year's campaign 14th in Bahrain having once again impressed by reaching Q2 during qualifying.

However, the Mercedes junior driver conceded he has been unable to replicate the driving style needed to handle the W11 last year in the FW43B due to the difference in car set-up philosophy.

"Something I also learned is that I had to be dynamic to change my driving quite a lot to suit their car, to get the most out of it," he added.

"But equally when I came back to Williams I had to revert because I couldn't do things in the Williams that I could do in the Mercedes."