George Russell has expressed that he is “frazzled” by the dramatic swing in performance that Mercedes experienced throughout the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Russell capitalised on Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz’s crash in the closing laps to pick up an unexpected podium in Baku with third place in the leading Mercedes car.
The Briton, who lined up fifth, lost out to Max Verstappen at the start, but he retrieved the place in the second stint and was running a distant fifth prior to the incident.
But while he was pleased to log his third podium this term, Russell has conceded Mercedes must understand the reason it lost so much ground in the opening stages.
“We thought we could probably fight for P5,” Russell said. “But how the race unfolded, we definitely didn’t expect [to get third].
“We were really slow in the first stint. I was about one and a half seconds slower than Charles [Leclerc] most laps. And it all felt pretty disastrous.
“But then the last 20 laps of the race, we were a second lap quicker than [Oscar] Piastri and Charles and three or four tenths quicker than Max and Carlos and Checo.
“So I’m sort of a bit frazzled as to why that is. The only difference is going from a yellow tyre to a white tyre. And, yeah, we need to understand why, understand further.”
Russell laments inconsistent Pirelli tyres
Russell has claimed Mercedes’ oscillation in pace was so extreme that it went from having borderline points-scoring speed to race-winning potential in the same race.
The Mercedes driver is adamant that the German marque’s inconsistent competitiveness can be attributed to how sensitive the current-generation Pirelli tyres behave.
“Well, we need to understand what happened in the race, because the last stint, we had a car that was comfortably capable of winning this race,” he explained.
“And in the first stint, we had a car that probably didn’t deserve to be in the top 10. And the only difference is the tyres. We’re not the only team to talk about this.
“It’s pretty frustrating for all of us sometimes when you just don’t understand the fluctuations in performance between a Q1 and a Q2 session, as an example, or one stint to another.”
Asked whether Mercedes being the sole team to run the Hard earlier in the weekend inspired its improved pace in the race, Russell retorted: Not really, to be honest.
“In practice on Friday… The track’s been really dirty this weekend, and the track was about three seconds off the pace on Friday, so I didn’t contribute towards it.”
