George Russell is not confident about bagging Mercedes’ first victory of the season, despite starting from pole for the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix.
Russell made it back-to-back poles at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve after a scintillating final flying effort in Q3 pipped Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to top spot.
Having said that, the Briton is not optimistic about converting his starting slot into a win for the Silver Arrows.
Mercedes has struggled for performance in hotter conditions during the ground effect era, something that Russell believes could bother the team’s prospects once again in Montreal.
“We had good race pace on Friday but it depends on the temperature,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“In practice, it was five degrees cooler than it was today and the car was easily in its sweet spot. Now, it can easily go the other way tomorrow in the race.
“If the sun comes out – it’s a two o’clock race, it was 4 o’clock [start for] qualifying today – that makes quite a bit of difference. So it’s not going to be an easy race.”
Graining was a major concern for the drivers during practice on Friday and variable temperatures could throw a curveball in terms of strategy, too, according to Russell.
“I’ve got some really quick guys around me. We don’t know if it’s going to be a one-stop or a two-stop, so it won’t be straightforward,” he asserted.
Russell also finds himself disadvantaged in terms of tyre choice going into the Grand Prix.
With cars around him like the McLarens and Ferraris having a set of fresh Mediums at their disposal as compared to scrubbed sets for the Briton and his team-mate, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, tyre degradation could swing the balance away from Mercedes over the course of the 70-lap race.
“At the moment the tyres aren’t really overheating. Any circuits we go to where the tyres aren’t overheating, such as here, such as Vegas last year, we performed really well. McLaren, we saw yesterday they were really on the back foot,” explained the 27-year-old.
“So it depends: it’s something literally as simple as it clouding over could give us a two-tenths advantage over McLaren. If the sun comes out, that sort of neutralises everything.
“I’d love to say something more than that — it’s a little bit out of our hands right now. But regardless of the conditions, we’re obviously starting in the best place.”
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