Great start by Russell! He’s clearly got the speed. No question. What most impressed me was that his feedback to his race engineer throughout the session was very good. He really seems to understand what the car is doing and knows what he wants to change to improve it. The kids proving his hype is worth it.
I know it’s only practice, but the guy drove with purpose the entire time. The moment isn’t too big for him. dealing with Max on Sunday will be the real challenge, but so far, so good. I do think he’s that next level of driver who is not only fast, but can think through the process of winning. We’ll see though
Great start for Russell. Bad for Bottas, it is going to go to this head. First time Russell goes P1 in a completely new car? Wow, talk about big implications.
While Bottas is in 4th and making apex mistakes as if it was me driving out there lol. Honestly, I hope Bottas pulls it together and just does his own thing. He looked decent earlier this season, but is just a rolling head case now.
I think what we are seeing regarding Bottas is that he is truly a #2 driver. Fast enough, but doesn’t have that mental rigidity to be a top dog.
The level of quality of the Mercedes is more than anything else defined by the fact that a rookie understands the car immediately and gets the very best result out of it. Where it seems that the reds, after practically one season, still don't understand their own car. That's how deep we've sunk.
Sad but so true, most worrying thing is seing Binotto smiling. Todt would have been sick in the same situation.
The car *and* the team, so why is Bottas not achieving more then? Rosberg endured some moments where he had to dig deeper to beat Hamilton in the same car. Bottas needs to push to avoid this conversation. Granted, with this layout the differences are miniscule and with the same car, even smaller, but he needs to have a bit of an upper hand clearly. He knows this car well after almost a full season.
It is highly amusing reading comments declaring judgement on Merc car, team, drivers as a result of free practice. Highly naive. Wait till Saturday and preferably Sunday at least! The only thing we can say definitively is that Russell is the real deal. Many have suspected that he had quality, but now we can see it’s more than just rumour. A star of the future? It looks like it.
As predicted Russell is two tenths behind Bottas. I was stunned that the commentators didn't know what a half shaft is. I'm not technical but even I know this term.
