Coulthard sees Russell still growing: ‘He is not yet the finished driver he can be’

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Coulthard sees Russell still growing: 'He is not yet the finished driver he can be'

George Russell sometimes still makes too many unnecessary mistakes, David Coulthard believes. He thinks the young British driver is too eager to beat his team-mate, but Coulthard thinks Russell just isn’t far enough in his development at the moment. “He is not yet the experienced driver he can be and Hamilton is back on track now,” he told Channel 4.

Russell enjoyed his first podium of the season in Barcelona, ​​crossing the finish line in third. He only had to tolerate current world champion Max Verstappen and his teammate Lewis Hamilton. So it looks like a good result, but the weekend itself wasn’t quite smooth for Russell. For example, he collided with Hamilton during the qualifying session and ended up in the gravel during a drive on the circuit ahead of Sunday’s race.

Coulthard: ‘Russell is too eager’

Still, the collision with Hamilton was the most noticeable for Coulthard. At the end of Q2, Hamilton was towed by Russell and his high speed meant the seven-time world champion wanted to go past his team-mate, but Russell moved left just before and the two Mercedes came into contact. Hamilton’s front wing broke off and he had to drive back to the pit lane. Still Hamilton made it to Q3, Russell qualified twelfth.

“George (Russell, ed.) was too eager here,” says Coulthard, quoted by PlanetF1.com. “His late move was not necessary, he wants to be better than Lewis (Hamilton, ed.). He didn’t want to give his team-mate that extra speed, I think he wants to show he’s better than top dog Hamilton, but he’s not ready for that in my opinion.

Russell: “It wasn’t a weird mistake, I hope other drivers have learned something from it too”

According to Russell himself, it was mainly ‘one big miscommunication’ and his focus was on Carlos Sainz, who was driving in front of him. “Suddenly Lewis was there, luckily it wasn’t a big accident, but it’s a shame that I didn’t get out of Q2 because of this.” In addition, the young Briton also made a mistake that ended up in the gravel trap on Sunday prior to the race.

Nico Rosberg thought it was “a remarkable mistake”, but Russell himself told Sky F1 it was nothing out of the ordinary. “I was just looking at how far I could cross the line, where exactly I could park my car. During the race, of course, you can’t always keep to the real racing line’, explains Russell. “There turned out to be little grip and that caused me to fly off the track. Maybe other drivers have seen that too and then they also know to watch out for it,” said Russell.

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