George Russell believes that Mercedes is in good shape in Barcelona
George Russell says that his Mercedes Formula 1 team can “do something different” in strategic terms after securing second row spots for the Spanish GP.
Having qualified just 0.002s apart Lewis Hamilton and Russell will start third and fourth behind Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, whose respective team mates are back in ninth and 11th.
With two cars at the sharp end Russell suggested that Mercedes will be able to split its strategies as the team takes on the cars ahead, and that overtaking will be possible.
“Two milliseconds is the biggest gap I’ve had for the last four races to a driver around me!,” he said when asked by this writer after the close field. “So it’s crazy to think that.
“Taking the positives, as a team, we’re in the mix. I think Lando did a really great lap. I don’t think Lewis and I kind of really put it together perfectly.
“I thought that was maybe two tenths on the table, not the gap that we saw to pole, but nevertheless, we’re P3/P4 and in a great place to fight for a win tomorrow.”
Regarding prospects for the race he said: “I don’t feel it will be that difficult to overtake, because there’s a lot of tyre degradation here, so you’ve only got to offset yourself by two or three laps, and suddenly, just in the tyre, you’ll probably have a four-tenths advantage on the driver you’re battling.
“We’re obviously in a good position, P3 and P4 strategically to do something different, but ultimately, the quickest driver tomorrow will, nine times out of 10 win the race.
“It’s not like a Singapore or Monaco that if you find yourself in the lead, you can defend it no matter how slow you are.”
Russell acknowledged that the Barcelona qualifying performance showed that Mercedes is now consistently competitive.
“We’ve been at three circuits now,” he said. “In Monaco, we were 20 milliseconds from qualifying third, and would have been a podium, Canada was obviously great.
“And here we’re on the second row, and I think it’s going to be a good fight with Lando and Max tomorrow. I think we’ll probably just have the edge on Ferrari. But I’m standing here with a lot of pride of what the team sort of achieved.
“There’s been a hell of a lot of work to bring this turnaround, and bringing these upgrades consistently a race or two early than they were planned.”
Asked if he was confident that the upturn is a permanent one he said: “You never know 100%, but this is for sure, the most confident we have been over the last three years of what we’ve brought to the car. And I think this is natural as well.
“We’re all gaining experience, we’re all three years into these regs, and I think we all know what makes a good race car in this sort of era, I think it’s proven how tight it is out there with the top four teams at the moment.
“So it’s going to be probably in becoming races, marginal differences will make a big difference in terms of your grid position, but that’s what F1 should be about.”
Adam Cooper F1 