Mercedes
Russell was third in the opening stages, and looked comfortable on the medium tyres. But he had higher levels of degradation on the hards, and found himself losing out to Leclerc and then Norris. He was worried at times whether he’d get his tyres to the finish, but managed to hold on to P5. Antonelli was just behind in sixth despite clipping the wall at one point. He did well late on to extract enough from the car to dissuade Hamilton from chasing too hard behind.
George Russell, 5th
“Tonight was all about the tyres and unfortunately, ours were suffering from overheating. I was pushing to stay with Verstappen at the start of the second stint, but it quickly became clear that we weren’t going to be able to hang on. I tried to manage the tyres a little more but, with the tyre age offset they had built, Leclerc and Norris were able to move ahead. After that, my tyres dropped off the cliff and it was all about just bringing the car home in P5. Ultimately, we didn’t have the pace today. Even if we had managed more at different points, that was the maximum available to us this evening.
“We will take the positives we can from this weekend. We know that tyre overheating is a weakness of our car at the moment. Everyone is focused on improving that. We will have to accept coming home fifth on a bad day but we all want to make steps in that area, and quickly.”
Kimi Antonelli, 6th
“It was a tough race but overall, I’m satisfied to come home P6. I struggled with understeer on the Medium tyre in the first stint. The front tyres started to degrade early on, so our pace wasn’t strong in the early stages. I felt better on the Hard compound after our pit stop though and our speed in the final 10 laps was competitive. I still had to manage though as we were suffering from overheating on the tyres throughout the race.
“Today’s race was still good learning for me. It has been an intense triple-header; there’s lots for me to look at and work on, but I’m also looking forward to some recovery time and to coming back stronger in Miami. We will keep pushing as a team to improve and build on our start to the season.”
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“That was our worst performance of the year so far. The pace dropped away as our tyres overheated and that was frustrating. We came into the race hoping we could compete for the podium but, with the limitations we had with the tyres, P5 and P6 was the maximum for us. We need to analyse our performance, work out why that was the case, and quickly find improvements. The next race in Miami is another race on a hot track surface so we will need to be better than we were today if we want to avoid a repeat performance.
“Both drivers fought hard with the limitations they were facing. Even with greater management at different stages of the race, George was always going to be unable to stop Leclerc and Norris coming past. Kimi continued his development to take P6 and hold off Lewis (Hamilton). That has helped us limit the damage to our direct competitors in the Constructors’ Championship, but we don’t leave Saudi Arabia satisfied with that.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
“That was our toughest race of the year so far. Starting P3 and P5, we were hopeful of being in the fight for the podium. Ultimately though, our pace was limited by overheating on both the Medium and Hard compounds. Both drivers managed early on in each stint but, when required to push the tyre harder, both axles suffered, and we couldn’t extract the pace of our competitors. George was powerless to hold off Leclerc and Norris in the closing stages, who used their fresher tyres to good effect. Kimi meanwhile did a good job to stave off Lewis (Hamilton) but P5 and P6 are not results we are ever going to be satisfied with. We know that managing the tyres is an area we need to improve in, and the factory is focused on doing that.
“Despite the tough evening, we have done well so far at collecting solid points over the first five races of the season. That is encouraging, but we need to build on that and do more. We have several hot races coming up and we need to get on top of our tyre management issues if we want to compete consistently at the front. We have the opportunity to do so starting in Miami in two weeks’ time.”
