Formula 1 | Russell and Mercedes porpoising: “The W13 is pure hell in corners”

Despite the progress shown in Miami, George Russell did not want to lower his concentration in view of the next Spanish GP, the sixth round of the 2022 F1 world championship. In an interview granted to the media across the Channel, the Englishman highlighted the major difficulties that still afflict the W13, specifying how most of them are caused by porpoing, a phenomenon that makes driving in bends for both drivers a real “hell”.

“We know we have a fast car, but we can't take Friday in Miami as a reference,” said the Mercedes Englishman. “Lewis managed to do a good job in qualifying, but the others improved their performance by almost a second between Friday and Saturday.”

“In free practice I had a race pace that was just two tenths lower than the Ferraris, while in the race the gap opened up again to more than half a second,” he continued. “If I look at the final result I would say that it didn't go badly, but not as well as we wanted”.

“The W13 a diva? That's an understatement, because it's an unpredictable car. Porpoising when cornering makes driving hell,” concluded the former Williams representative.