The 2025 F1 Monaco GP has been a nightmare for the two Mercedes drivers so far. A Grand Prix where your qualifying position shapes your overall race result the most, George Russell sees the Sunday afternoon race as “the weekend over” after qualifying in 14th place on the grid with 1:11.507, right ahead of his teammate Kimi Antonelli.
A bump that potentially cost Russell a strong qualifying result going into the race
After passing Q1 with a P5 finish, the second phase of qualifying was bad for George Russell. With almost 10 minutes of Q2 remaining, George Russell experienced a sudden slowdown with his W16, which eventually switched off in the Monaco Grand Prix tunnel.
The Mercedes team elaborated that the Briton lost power after hitting a bump coming out of Turn 1. He was then unable to restart the car, despite many attempts to switch the car on. The team analysed that it was a potential electrical problem which triggered the second Mercedes red flag in the session.
In the print media pen, Russell mentioned that the bump wasn’t news to him since it was there all weekend. Nevertheless, he could not further explain why his W16 was affected this time. He described the situation as simply “disappointing.”
The British driver said that their overall performance had been off their usual standards in the Monaco GP, which led them to go back to basics for qualifying. This actually seemed to help him during his first laps of the session. He expected to start the Sunday race in the top four.
“It was definitely the cause, but it was a bump in the straight. It’s a bump that’s been there all weekend, and a bump that I’ve felt all weekend. But for whatever reason, on this occasion, the whole engine switched off when I hit this bump.
“Really disappointing because we got ourselves a bit lost this weekend with the set-up, and we went back to basics for quali.
“From lap one, I felt back in the game. Also, Kimi stayed with probably more of a set-up than he had in FP3. I went back to something that we knew. He was struggling, and we were there.
“I really feel we would have been in the top four today. Now, we’re not.”
Mercedes had a real chance in Monaco
Though they were having a relatively difficult week in Monaco compared to the previous weekends of the 2025 season, the Briton stated that it was all clicking for him in Q1.
Acknowledging that the Monaco is the one Grand Prix where qualifying matters the most for the outcome of the Sunday race, Russell expressed that they might have lost the weekend, despite possessing a chance in the first lap of the qualifying.
“It was clicking in Q1. We were one of the few drivers not to take any new tyres. I did one corner in Q2, and I was already almost two tenths up.
“That would have been plenty enough to be into Q3 with two sets. We had the two hard tyres. We had a real chance this weekend, but now it’s up in smoke. The weekend is over, so it’s pretty deflating.”
A weekend totally lost?
Though the picture might seem pessimistic for the Silver Arrows duo, a well-analysed strategy approach might garner them points in the narrow streets of Monaco. Nevertheless, Russell admitted that he is far behind where he anticipated starting, which prevents him from being optimistic heading to the race.
Russell expects to see crazy strategies from each team to turn around their game during the race.
“For sure, there’s going to be some crazy strategies.
“We qualify 14th. We probably should have been in the top five. There are ten cars between me and where we should have been.
“If people are doing crazy things with the strategy, half of those guys will go one way, the other half will go the other way. Therefore, whichever one we decide, we’re still stuck behind five drivers. That’s the problem.”
Mercedes will decide on their strategy by the teams’ tyre choice
Getting clean air for the F1 cars in the Monaco Grand Prix is very difficult, particularly when each team tries to achieve it at the same time. Therefore, Russell stated that he expects teams to either pit on lap one or go long into the race with the hard tyres.
“People are a bit early to get clean air, but if everybody does it, no one will get clean air. You’re going to see one of two things. People pitting on lap one or people going really long into the race.
“As I said, we do have a small advantage with the two hard tyres, but if you can’t pass, there’s not much you can do.”
He noted that they possess an advantage with the two hard tyres while acknowledging that it wouldn’t mean much if they fail to overtake. The British driver said that their race strategy will be shaped by the choice of other teams.
“We will probably choose, as soon as we know what tyres teams have started on.
“If they start on the C6, they’re going for a very early one. If everybody starts on the hard tyre, they’re intending to go longer. As soon as we see what they’re on, we’ll make that choice.”
