'Neither driver looked happy' - worrying Mercedes verdict in Saudi Arabia

Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok believes neither Lewis Hamilton or George Russell looked particularly happy with the handling of the Mercedes W15 on the first day of running at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Russell ended the more representative second practice session just behind pace-setter Fernando Alonso, just over 0.2s off.

On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton struggled more, setting the eighth fastest time.

Hamilton, on a number of occasions, suffered from a loose rear-end with several oversteer moments in FP2.

After the session, Hamilton conceded that he doesn’t have “full faith” in the Mercedes W15 around the Saudi Arabian track.

Giving his verdict on Mercedes, Chandhok felt that Hamilton didn’t look “as happy” as his teammate.

“Neither driver looked particularly happy with their car balance today,” Chandhok said.

“Lewis was a couple of tenths shy of George in Bahrain and in the race, four or five seconds behind in the end.

“He has just not looked as happy as even George has done today. Certainly on the long runs, both were complaining about the rear end going away and instability at the rear-end which we heard a lot of last year. There’s work to do overnight.”

Former Aston Martin F1 strategist Bernie Collins suggested one way Mercedes could remedy their current problems.

“I think around here it’s very different,” she added. “This is a confidence track - driver confidence. Arguably, you can set up the car a little bit slower than optimum if it gives the driver a little bit more confidence.

“So there’s that balance to be struck and you need to into a corner reliably, lap on lap.

“You want to know when you hit that first braking zone, that first high-speed corner, so it’s predictable in how it reacts and it doesn’t seem like it there yet.”