George Russell, Mercedes, Bahrain International Circuit

Russell puts Mercedes on top as Bahrain test ends

2019 F1 season

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George Russell set the fastest time of the Bahrain test after switching from his regular Williams to Mercedes’ championship-leading W10 for the second and final day of running.

Following the surprise rain during Tuesday’s test the drivers enjoyed more typical Bahrain weather on Wednesday, allowing them to complete more productive running. Alexander Albon was busiest of all, covering 143 laps in his Toro Rosso, around two-and-a-half race distances. Six other drivers also covered more than 100 laps.

Russell narrowly led fellow Mercedes user Sergio Perez at the top of the times, the pair separated by less than a tenth of a second. The pair both used the softest C5 compound tyres, which were not available during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, though ended up over a second off Charles Leclerc’s pole position time for Ferrari.

The first six cars were covered by a second. They included Russell, Perez, Sebastian Vettel, Carlos Sainz Jnr and Mick Schumacher – the latter having switched from Ferrari to Alfa Romeo for his second day in the car.

Dan Ticktum made his F1 test debut with Red Bull and ended the day ninth-fastest. He had a full day to himself in the RB15 but several other teams again ran different drivers in the morning and afternoon. McLaren and Toro Rosso conducted further tyre testing for Pirelli.

Pos.Car numberDriverTeamModelBest timeGapLapsTyres
163George RussellMercedesW101’29.029101C5
211Sergio PerezRacing PointRP191’29.0950.06661C5
35Sebastian VettelFerrariSF901’29.3190.290103C3
455Carlos Sainz JnrMcLarenMCL341’29.7950.76621C3
526Daniil KvyatToro RossoSTR141’29.9110.882111Prototype
629Mick SchumacherAlfa RomeoC381’29.9980.96970C5
723Alexander AlbonToro RossoSTR141’30.0371.008143C5
818Lance StrollRacing PointRP191’30.0491.02035C4
924Dan TicktumRed BullRB151’30.8561.827135C5
108Romain GrosjeanHaasVF-191’30.9031.87487C4
1114Fernando AlonsoMcLarenMCL341’31.0061.97769C4
1251Pietro FittipaldiHaasVF-191’31.2092.18048C3
134Lando NorrisMcLarenMCL341’31.3032.27472C2
1445Jack AitkenRenaultRS191’31.5002.471103C4
1540Nicholas LatifiWilliamsFW421’32.1983.169100C4
1655Carlos Sainz Jnr (Pirelli test)McLarenMCL341’32.2693.24060Prototype

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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28 comments on “Russell puts Mercedes on top as Bahrain test ends”

  1. Russel must be thinking “please let me have this car”. And in fairness they do need to think like ferrari and have a young gun ready to replace Hamilton in the next few years.

    1. robinsonf1 (@)
      3rd April 2019, 16:52

      Ocon? :)

      1. Ocon was no better than Perez. Perez is around the level of Hulk. Both of those drivers are great but neither of them are the next hamilton or verstappen. That’s what ferrari appear to have in Leclerc. Russel was extremely impressive in GP2 so it’s sensible for them to keep testing him and see if he is a better bet than ocon, but we’ll just have to wait and see if that translates to f1 (as it didn’t for vandoorne f.ex).

        1. but you don’t really know about hulkenberg, do you. he might just be one of the best drivers in f1 and you wouldn’t know. I’m changing much of my thinking about the guy, recently, and you should do as well

          1. BlackJackFan
            4th April 2019, 2:20

            If he was “one of the best drivers in F1…” of course we would know about it… lol.

          2. Hulk is good and solid, but there’s a reason he’s stuck at Renault and never really made it to a big team.

          3. This old chestnut again, Hulk is solid driver but that’s it. People have been banging on for years that he should be in a top car but has never done anything to gain that status. If he was that good he’d have been picked up by a top team years ago, the very fact he hasn’t says enough.

      2. Ocon would be fine to replace Bottas at some point but I feel Russel is the replacement for Hamilton down the line.

    2. That might happen sooner than we thought at Ferrari.

  2. Mick Schumacher with the Alfa Romeo set almost an identical time with his Ferrari time. Hmm…

    1. Because testing.

  3. It’s quite neat to see these young drivers swapping and sampling different cars. (I know of course it’s all due to the consolidation of power with manufacturers—but still.)

    Reminds me a bit of Bernie’s idea to separate the driver and constructor’s championships by having each driver do a race in every car on the grid. Of all his ridiculous ideas, that one was my favourite!

    1. In a way it isn’t such a silly idea. After all in other sports competitors can be expected to undertake mandatory tasks as well as having some optional ones. To be strictly correct each driver should drive each car on each track, which would be a disaster.

  4. I’d love to ask him what it feels like to go from a back of the grid car to a front of the car in the space of 48 hours. Especially as they share relatively the same powertrain, must be an odd adjustment initially.

    1. Probably not a nice feeling returning to that dog of a car.

    2. @bernasaurus @jureo
      Probably very useful for Williams to give him a feel for what a great car feels like so that he can provide the engineers with good feedback.

  5. From the original driver line-up it seems that Alonso was on prototype tyres as well (same as Sainz in 16th place). @keithcollantine

    I assume that 4th placed Sainz did so in a car he shared with Norris.
    Not too shabby on C3 tyres.

  6. Why isn’t Ocon testing?
    Russel already has a drive and is a driver to another team, even though it’s a Mercedes customer team but still.

    1. He might try to unlap himself

    2. Ipsom, it seems that a few teams are being a bit canny about how they are using this test, because they are also using it as a way of passing the requirements for giving over two days to a “young driver”.

      In the case of Mercedes, I believe that Russell technically counts as a “young driver” because he only has two race starts under his belt, which is the maximum number of races a driver can have before they lose that classification. Now, if they have to use two of their four days of testing on a “young driver”, using Russell means they technically meet that and therefore can keep two days back for their regular drivers.

      However, as Ocon doesn’t count as a “young driver”, any testing for him would have to be deducted from the amount of time that Hamilton and Bottas could spend testing – it’s a way of carefully maximising their time.

      I think that Red Bull might have been able to pull a similar trick with Albon at Toro Rosso, as I think that he’s technically still a “young driver” and therefore any testing time for him in this test counts towards their requirements to run a “young driver” this year.

      In fact, they’ve arguably played it best – by getting him to test for both of these days, Kvyat can then use the remaining two days of testing later in the year. It means that their two race drivers get the maximum amount of testing mileage in the season whilst still meeting the “young driver” requirements, which is a pretty clever way of playing the regulations.

      1. Aha, I didn’t know about the young driver testing bonus. Guess it makes more sense… I also really want to see Ocon get his deserved oppurtinity

        1. If I was Toto, i’d have Lando quite high on my Bottas replacement list.

          1. Bottas has showed signs of improvement this year. He might not be replaced if he keeps on par with Hamilton throughout the season

  7. /sigh/
    Man…. Formula 1 is such a pathetic abomination of a sports competition.
    Give Kubica a Mercedes, give Alonso a Mercedes, give all drivers a Mercedes and we will what’s up. We’ll see them compete against one another, fair and square. It would’ve been so exciting.

  8. This headline is the wrong way round, it’s Mercedes putting Russell on top.

    1. Lol true.

  9. @everyone mentioning drivers who deserve top drives.

    Mercedes is a fair example of this. They have like 6 drivers under their wing all comming or going and with no room. Even Ocon. What will happen to their drivers if Racing Point and Williams get a few pay drivers?

    Look at the history, good, decent, fast drivers are falling out of F1 like rats from a sinking ship, guys who showed a lot of promise.

    Hulk dominated lower categories, Vandorne dominated GP2, Ocon was somewhat brilliant in F1 aswell, but none are on their way to a top team.

    Ocon for sure is better than Gasly?

    Only LeClerc made it, look at him now wiping the floor with Lewis and Seb last weekend.

    None of the above even had the same opportunity, despite showing lots of driving brilliance just to enter F1.

    If you want to be a top dog in F1, you have to make it happen fast. Last two that were convincing right away are Max Verstappen and LeClerc.

    Both generated epic hype, far beyond their driving skill. That is where other drivers mainly fall short.

    Next upcoming driver with hype is Mick Schumacher. I hazard a bet He’ll be in a front running team soon if he even half deserves it.

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