George Russell has admitted to being clueless after a bevvy of issues “compromised” his qualifying for the 2026 Formula 1 British Grand Prix.
Russell has fallen off a cliff after his Austrian GP exploits, last weekend.
Coming into the British GP weekend, Russell has admittedly been “on the back foot” compared to his team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
After the Italian wrapped up the Sprint race, Antonelli doubled down with pole position for the main race on Sunday.
Russell, on the other hand, was as many as three-and-a-half tenths off in the top-10 shootout from the 19-year-old. Consequently, the Briton will start his home GP from fourth.
“No, not too sure, just tyres were a bit cold and compromised the last lap,” he told media including Motorsport Week when asked what went wrong on his final flying lap.
Russell was nursing a pretty difficult afternoon ever since Q1. On his very first flying lap, he seemingly understeered into Luffield, enduring a close shave with the outside barriers.
The Mercedes driver was able to keep his W17 going, and progressed through the sessions. Looking back, he swatted away any suggestions that, that incident contributed to his plight.
“No, there was no damage, but all weekend we’ve been losing lots of time in the straights,” he added.
“Yesterday in Q3 there were almost three attempts I lost in the straights. Today in qualifying, if you look at the speed traps, it’s 3kph down in the middle sector, 6kph down in the last sector compared to my team-mate and compared to the other McLaren cars.”
George Russell and Mercedes at wits’ end after F1 British GP qualifying woes
Russell explained how the team had, after the Sprint race, made changes to the car after having isolated the cause of his woes, or so they had thought.
“The team are working super hard to understand why that is. We thought we found the problem this morning and we thought the brakes were locking on,” Russell examined.
“But we’re not convinced that’s the issue. But it just compounds everything when going into a session knowing you’re at a bit of a disadvantage.”
Despite the lack of answers on Mercedes’ end, Russell suspects that the aerodynamic profile on his car is probably turning out to be his Achilles heel.
“If the deployment looks OK, I’m just offset on speed in the straight. It just looks like I’m running more of a dragier car,” he insisted.
“If you look at the speed trace of qualifying yesterday and you look at the speed traps from today, it’s the same.”
Notwithstanding, Russell is hopeful he can pull performance back, overnight, to bid for a podium place before his home fans.
“I wouldn’t have been on pole for sure, but I definitely would have been higher up yesterday,” he concluded.
“I think in the fight yesterday and today in qualifying, maybe run one of Q3 I’d have been at the front.
“The mindset changes, but I’ve just sort of felt on the back foot coming into today. I’ll do my best tomorrow to go on the podium.”
As far as records go, it would be Russell’s first-ever podium at Silverstone, if he manages to mount a challenge from P4.
Discussion about this post