Mercedes’ George Russell took the chequered flag at the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP in P2 behind race winner Lewis Hamilton.
The 28-year-old reflected on his 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP performance and spoke about his former teammate’s win. He also shared that his approach towards the 2026 Drivers’ Championship will not change despite the added challenges.
Russell on his 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP performance
Russell had started the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP from the front row after clinching pole in Qualifying. Despite a strong start that allowed him to not only maintain P1 but also extend the gap from his competition, the Briton ultimately lost to Hamilton’s aggressive three-stop strategy. As reflected by the 28-year-old, he also struggled to extract pace from his W17 to maximise his potential on track on the hard tyre in stints two and three.
Nonetheless, Russell is focusing on the positives of the weekend. His P2 finish in Barcelona awards him his first points in three Sunday races.
“I mean, 18 more points than I’ve achieved in the last two races. I would take the positives from that, and I would take the positives from the weekend as a whole. The race was feeling good, to be honest. I felt solid at the start and just slowly eking out the gap to Lewis, and he obviously committed quite early to the three-stop, and then we covered, but stuck on the two-stop and, yeah, from that point onwards it was quite challenging and just didn’t have the pace and wasn’t feeling too happy with the Hard tyre.”
Mercedes has room to improve
The Briton also shared that Hamilton’s win was assured following the Virtual Safety Car and acknowledged that his P2 finish was at the expense of Kimi Antonelli‘s late retirement.
He added that he looks forward to working with Mercedes to resolve their concerning unreliability.
“I’m not sure. We need to look at it afterwards, to be honest. You know, I think Lewis would have come through regardless, but he obviously jumped us with the Virtual Safety Car, and I got fortunate with Kimi’s failure as well. So, it’s a shame to see how the race ended for him and obviously for us as a team and as HPP, we’ve had a few failures recently, so that’s a big concern for us.”
Lewis Hamilton’s maiden win with Ferrari and a full British podium
The 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP saw the first all-British podium since 1968, with McLaren’s Lando Norris rounding off the podium in P3.
Russell shared how it felt to be a part of the historical moment and spoke on Hamilton’s maiden win with the Scuderia. He added that it was “special’ to witness the fruition of the 7-time world champion’s progress with Ferrari.
“Yeah, I mean, he [Lando Norris] said it pretty well. We both sort of grew up as fans of Lewis and, you know, for myself, spending three years together in Mercedes, so much respect. It was a big, bold move to join Ferrari, and to see it now paying off for him is very special, to see given the magnitude of the decision. And, yeah, he’s going to be a real threat. So, as Lando said, hopefully it doesn’t continue for too long, but to be standing up here, three Brits, first time in 60 years, it’s a special feeling.”
Russell on his approach towards the 2026 Drivers’ Championship
Following the 2026 F1 Monaco GP, Hamilton had overtaken Russell in the F1 Drivers’ Championship, taking P2. The 7-time world champion’s win at the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP only extends his lead ahead of Russell. Despite Mercedes’ dominance in the early rounds of the season, Hamilton and Ferrari seem to have caught up and are now in contention for a championship charge.
Russell explained that the competitive order of the sport rapidly shifts each weekend as rival teams bring new developmental upgrades with them. Hence, the Briton’s approach to the 2026 Drivers’ Championship has not shifted.
“Well, at the moment, Lewis is obviously ahead of me in the championship. We need to see across the course of a couple of races. They did bring a big upgrade here, and I think the development slope is so steep at the moment for all of the teams. Whoever is going to be bringing those upgrades earliest is going to be taking a step forward. And we saw it with McLaren in Miami, having a really strong weekend, and then ourselves and Ferrari have taken a step forward thereafter. So honestly, the approach doesn’t change for me. I’m just looking to maximise my weekends. It hasn’t been the case recently, and see where it takes us.”
How Russell works through challenging races
Russell also spoke on how he controls his emotions during a challenging race, such as the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP and explained his philosophy.
“It’s tough. You know, it’s not an easy sport. We work every single day of our life to achieve this dream, and when things out of your control go against you, it’s difficult to accept. And if the performance isn’t where you hope for it to be, it’s also difficult to accept.
“We have to continuously dig deep every single day, dig deep, remind yourself why you’re doing this, and thinking back to, you know, Lando said, when we were younger, looking up to the likes of Lewis and dreaming of being sat here. You know, we probably wouldn’t have been able to believe this 15 years ago, that we’d be sharing the podium together as a three. Now, of course, we both would have preferred to sit in the middle from the three of us, but this is why we do it.”
Disagreements on the pit strategies at the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP
Russell then revealed that he will be speaking with Mercedes as he disagreed with the strategy the team had him on at the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP.
Hamilton, who started on soft tyres, had pitted early on lap 12 of the 66-lap race. This resulted in Mercedes responding and calling Russell to pit the next lap. The 7-time world champion committed to a three-stop strategy; however, on his second stop, Mercedes did not react, which left the 28-year-old vulnerable in the later stages of the race.
Had he responded to Hamilton, Antonelli could have been a big problem, however.
“Well, Lewis had really great pace. If I was in the race on my own and there was no other drivers and I was doing a two-stop, I would not have pitted on lap 13. Now, you’re never in the race on your own. You’re reacting to your competitors, and they put us in a very challenging position to pit this early.
“The truth is, my pace wasn’t quite strong enough today, but I do think I could have just mirrored his strategy on the three-stop, but that would have maybe left me exposed to Kimi on the two-stop, and maybe I wouldn’t have been happy about that in the end. So, I need to go through it with my team.”
On-track battles with Kimi Antonelli
Russell also spoke on the battles with teammate Antonelli. He shared that while defending his position during the on-track battles with his teammate, did result in time loss, he believed that Hamilton always had the advantage with the timing of the Virtual Safety Car.
“It did cost us a little bit. I think Lewis, with the VSC, was always destined to come out ahead, to be honest. You know, he came out with a two-second gap. We probably lost a second, but he just had really great pace today. It was really impressive to see. And even in the first stint, at one point I was expecting to see Kimi make the move on Lewis, and I was watching the TV screens, and Lewis just seemed to have it covered.”
Moving forward to the 2026 F1 Austrian GP
The 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP is the first race of the season not won by a Mercedes driver. Russell shared his thought process as he leaves the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and approaches the upcoming 2026 F1 Austrian GP.
He reiterated that he will not be focused on the 2026 Drivers’ Championship but rather focuses on his strong performances from the weekend in the Free Practice and Qualifying sessions.
However, the Briton also acknowledges the suboptimal performance during the race and looks forward to redeeming himself in Austria.
“I’m going to be honest: I’m not really thinking about the championship. I’m thinking about just controlling my controllables. And, you know, Friday and Saturday, I felt like I did everything to the best of my ability and got absolutely the best result possible on almost every single lap I did. Today, I made a great start.
“The first stint was solid, but the last two stints on the hard wasn’t good enough. So, my head is coming out of this race thinking performance was not strong enough, and I need to make some improvements. It’s a challenging circuit. It’s the first race of the year where we’ve had major tyre degradation. You know, the winner on a three-stop strategy. The six races prior have been an easy one-stop. So totally different ballgame today. We’ll reassess in Austria. But as I said, I’m going to control my controllables and keep on trying to apply the pressure.”
