Russell believes that Mercedes needs to have a better understanding of tire degradation

The start of George Russell’s weekend is quite stable. The Mercedes driver started the Saturday sprint in 4th position and finished in the same place 23 laps later. The Briton had managed to overtake Perez and Norris, before ultimately being overtaken again.

For the main race, the qualifying session took place on Friday. With a 6th time in Q3, he was supposed to start on the 3rd row on Sunday, before receiving a penalty.

A decrease in performance

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton’s W14 lost a lot of rhythm during the sprint. The 38-year-old driver, who started in 5th place on the grid, was overtaken by Charles Leclerc and Yuki Tsunoda. George Russell, on the other hand, gained two positions fairly quickly. However, the loss of rhythm was too significant and he was overtaken again.

“It was a good start,” he said. “I sort of saw Turn 10 as an overtaking opportunity, we were quick in Turns 8 and 9. And I felt like this was my chance, I’m so happy to make it count. It’s just a shame that we got passed again. We’re the slowest on the straights right now, so we’re very vulnerable if someone has DRS behind us. We knew that would be the case. But that’s not the reason for our lack of pace. On the contrary, since we have a bit more downforce than everyone else, we expected less tire degradation. So we really need to understand what went wrong.”

An unexpected problem

For the past two seasons, Mercedes has had cars that degrade very little on the tires. This is a very positive element when the track temperature is high, but very detrimental when it’s cold or raining. However, for the first time this year, the German team experienced a significant degradation of their tires.

“It’s really unexpected,” conceded George Russell. “We didn’t expect to be the fastest, but at least to be a few tenths behind Max. Maybe a similar pace to Lando. But clearly, we made a mistake today. The tires simply degraded and we need to rectify that, as it’s disappointing. We know how sensitive the tires are to the conditions. Tomorrow, it should be four or five degrees cooler, and that could change everything, so not all is lost yet. I guess everyone in the paddock would like to understand this degradation, but it’s a bit of black magic.”

Penalized, Russell will start 8th

In his disappointing rhythm, George Russell also received a penalty on Friday during qualifying. The stewards found that the British driver hindered the pit lane exit. As a result, he was penalized with a two-position drop for the Sunday race. « “It was a bit frustrating when the stewards told me that I was unlucky that Pierre Gasly accelerated and came right behind me,” lamented the Mercedes driver. « “Yet, I did nothing different from other drivers who sort of stayed in the middle of the track. We keep adding new rules, and every time, it always has an unforeseen consequence.” »

George Russell is currently in 8th place in the driver’s championship. He is 14 points behind his predecessor, Charles Leclerc.