Russell and Hamilton 'unconcerned' over key Mercedes trend

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton are "unconcerned" about a key trend that has been spotted with Mercedes throughout the 2023 season.

The team has turned around its fortunes since the start of the season, having slipped behind both Ferrari and Aston Martin in the competitive running order in the first handful of rounds.

Switching car concepts in Monaco to ditch the zero sidepod design enabled it to challenge more consistently for podiums and leapfrog Ferrari in the Constructors' Championship, who it leads by 28 points heading into the final five races of the season.

Although most weekends it looks like Mercedes will endure a tough race weekend, this often changes overnight between practice, qualifying and the race.

Both drivers can often fail to deliver on the promise shown on Friday, with Hamilton suffering two Q2 exits and Russell failing to make Q3 and four occasions this year.

Russell: We've been trying many things with the car

When asked if it was a worrying trend they spotted, Russell told media, including RacingNews365: "It's just learning and experience. I think we found ourselves off the pace at the start of this year, a long way behind where we wanted to be.

"We were trying many different things with the car. Now, probably these last five races, the set-up of the car has been relatively, much the same set-up every race we go to.

"We know what the car needs to maximise its performance. I think that helps the consistency we build upon it. That's also given us good direction into next year, so I think that's a big factor of it."

It's not uncommon for teams to experiment with setup direction in practice sessions, with Ferrari dedicating time after the summer break to understanding its car setup.

For his part, Hamilton said: "[I have] nothing more to add to that [which George said] to be honest."