Russell concedes Red Bull-Ferrari have ‘inherently faster car’

George Russell said Ferrari and Red Bull have an “inherently faster car” than Mercedes as the Silver Arrows struggled in the first two practice sessions of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

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Russell finished seventh in FP2 while his team-mate Lewis Hamilton was down in 12th as the porpoising issue seemed to return.

Mercedes’ form has been up and down of late having seemingly regained their Championship pace in Barcelona, only to disappoint last time out in Monaco.

That poor form looks set to continue as the W13 struggles with the Baku circuit.

Russell commented that while most teams put in their quicker laps towards the end of the session, Ferrari and Red Bull seemed to be “inherently faster” than the rest of the pack.

“It was a tricky day, we weren’t as competitive as we would have liked,” the 24-year-old said. “Again, a tricky track to get the tyres in the right window.

“You see with a number of drivers, their fastest laps were coming right at the end of the run, whereas Ferrari and Red Bull, they seemed to be able to turn it on. At the moment, they just have an inherently faster car than us and we’ve done everything we can to try and catch up.

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“If we’re totally on top of the tyres we’re not going to fully close that gap – or we’re definitely not going to close that gap,