George Russell has predicted Red Bull will be a step ahead of Mercedes and Ferrari over the course of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend and admitted his team “has a bit of work to do” after a solid performance in practice on Friday.
Mercedes clinched a one-two in the heat of early afternoon’s opening practice but their cars fell back during a cooler FP2 – Russell finished the day three tenths off pace-setting Red Bull driver Max Verstappen while teammate Lewis Hamilton was six minutes behind. tenth back in fourth place.
Whilst Russell feels Mercedes have gleaned a lot of valuable data from the two sessions, particularly looking ahead to the 2023 season, he does feel that Verstappen and Red Bull are on the Yas Marina Circuit – which is dominated by long straights and heavy braking zones will – come out on top.
READ MORE: Verstappen leads Russell and Leclerc in second practice session at dusk in Abu Dhabi
“I think we had a very strong day in terms of what we learned. We did a lot of testing tasks in FP1, especially on my side, looking towards 2023 and this is one of our last chances to test. FP2, obviously, [it was a] cooler track temperature – the track has completely changed,” explained Russell.
Russell arrived in Abu Dhabi as the latest Formula 1 race winner after triumphing at Interlagos last time out
“It felt fast out there but I think Red Bull just got their legs over us in a single lap. [They’re] probably two tenths ahead, [and on the] Maybe even further in the long term so we have a bit of work to do overnight but it’s looking pretty decent compared to Ferrari.”
Pumped up by what’s possible for himself and Mercedes this weekend, he added: “I think we’re going to fight for it. I would like to think that we can fight for the top 3 in qualifying and who knows where that will take us on Sunday.”
READ MORE: ‘It’s still a work in progress’ – Wolff keeps his feet on the ground after Brazil win as he insists Mercedes’ recovery is ongoing
On the other side of the pits, Hamilton had to rue set-up changes that had taken some of his confidence en route to the top of the FP1 timesheets, while also admitting his FP2 long run was “not very good”.
“FP1 felt pretty good, [but in] FP2 [the] The balance was pretty much out of whack. I made some changes from FP1 to FP2 and they just weren’t the right ones, so [it was a] In FP2 I was struggling a bit, just with a lot of oversteer – that was mainly my limitation. We’ll make some changes overnight, but otherwise we’re relatively competitive – we’re right there,” he said.
Hamilton led FP1 at the Yas Marina Circuit but his car lost balance throughout the day
On how the weekend compares to Brazil where Mercedes clinched a one-two, he added: “I think it’s looking a little bit closer. I think the Red Bulls seem a little quicker here, which was expected. We didn’t expect this to be our strongest race. But we’re going to work hard overnight, we’re generally right there so hopefully we can fight back well.”
Mercedes go into the season finale looking to close a 19-point deficit on Ferrari in the battle for P2 in the Constructors’ Championship, with 44 points up for grabs in Sunday night’s Grand Prix.