Mercedes driver George Russell said he still didn’t know why the cooling issues with his W15 had such a severe impact during the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Silver Arrows were hit with cooling issues that complicated their qualifying at Bahrain last weekend, forcing drivers to manage the high temperatures they were facing.
Russell said the issues are fix for the upcoming Saudi Arabian GP but that the team still doesn’t know why it had such a severity during the first race weekend of the season.
“We found the problem and it was a simple solution, but we are still trying to find why the problem was so severe in Bahrain,” he said.
“We found the cause, we just don’t know why it had the impact it did.”
The Briton said he’s not worried about the cooling issues coming back for Saturday’s race, and said that the pace of the Mercedes was “looking strong.”
“The only challenge here is, it’s not an easy track to overtake, and even though you have got the three DRS zones, you can’t overtake into turn 22 and now it’s even harder to follow.
“With an easy one-stop race, you don’t see much of a tire delta between the drivers.
“Time will tell. I am confident we are quicker than McLaren and Aston Martin. We have good straight-line speed, which we haven’t said for two years, but I don’t think it will be straightforward.”