Russell bets on hard rubber: « Our only positive point »
Faced with the heat of the Spanish Grand Prix, George Russell anticipates a tough race for Mercedes. The Briton is banking on Pirelli's choice of the hardest rubber as the only real hope.
Despite the developments of its W16 for 2025, Mercedes is still struggling to resolve one of its Achilles’ heels: thermal management, particularly at the rear axle. This weakness is particularly penalizing on hot circuits, as is the case this weekend in Barcelona.
George Russell, who set the fourth fastest time in qualifying, remains realistic about the team’s race performance: « We know that on Saturday, our car is between P2 and P5, that’s how it’s been since the start of the season. »
He still notes a positive aspect in the tire management. « It’s good, we managed to get to Q3 with only two sets of tires, so I have a set of new softs for tomorrow, which is a real race tire, that’s a positive point. »
Hard erasers as the only hope
The Grand Prix will be contested with Pirelli’s C1, C2, and C3 compounds – the hardest available. Russell sees an advantage in this, given Mercedes’ struggles with soft tires in hot conditions. We are realistic, we know the car is not fast on Sundays. We also made a lot of changes to the car this weekend to improve race pace. The fact that it didn’t penalize qualifying is positive… But it might mean that it won’t improve race pace.
Russell refers to an encouraging precedent. « We suffered a lot when it was hot with the soft tires, but when it was the hard tires in Bahrain, and it was hot, we finished second. »
He explains why the situation could be more favorable: « If the tires overheat by 10 degrees with a C4, it’s much more detrimental than 10 degrees on a C1. So that’s our only small positive point for tomorrow. »
Antonelli: back to pre-Imola settings
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who will start from the sixth position, shares his teammate’s analysis. He believes that the long stints completed in free practice give them a good basis to work from, but emphasizes that Mercedes will still need to better understand certain elements of the car’s behavior.
« I think tomorrow will be really difficult with the temperature, we’ll see. The goal is to keep the tires in the best possible condition. »
He indicates that Mercedes has also backtracked on a recent development. « We did quite a few long runs, we have a lot of data, but the others are also very strong. Finding good performance in qualifying was a more normal feeling. We’ll see if we can keep this feeling in the race. »
