After being in the lower end of the top ten during the practice sessions, George Russell secured a very impressive P4 in qualifying for the F1 British GP.
As the field was incredibly close during qualifying this weekend, Russell delivered a strong lap when it mattered. When asked about the qualifying session, Russell explained that their performance did not quite align with Mercedes’ expectations this weekend. As seen throughout the year, Mercedes tend to perform better in cooler weather, which is what they have learned to expect. However, the Silverstone weekend has not proved to be an advantage for the team thus far.
“Really pleased with that last lap. Every lap until that point we were anywhere from five tenths to eight tenths off the pace and we were scratching our heads a little bit today, because we thought the cooler conditions, things would come more towards us. It was only that last lap in Q3 when it did. It’s always good when your best lap of the weekend is the last one.”
Staying calm in qualifying
The British driver reflected back on the qualifying session and explained his approach today. Russell also referred to his radio message during Q1 where he told the team to “just stay calm” and to inform him about what they were thinking. The Mercedes driver explained the process in qualifying, stating:
“Q1 is a really challenging session for probably all the teams, other than McLaren, because you want to try and get to Q3 on two sets of tyres. To do that you need to get through Q1 on one set of tyres and also get through Q2 on one set of tyres as well. I think it’s always a bit frantic on the pit wall sometimes and from my side of the car I’ve got no visibility of what’s going on, so I was just like let’s just chill out a bit, tell me what you’re thinking and we can discuss.”
Despite the challenges of the weekend, the Mercedes driver appeared to be in a good mood. When asked about what they improved the most the Brit joked, saying:
“Well, we arranged for those clouds to come in and that made us go about five tenths faster so that was nice. From our side we didn’t think much more.”
He continued on to explain which weather would be preferable for the team during the race, stating:
“Cold and dry to be honest. It’s clear whenever it’s warm we struggle, whenever it’s cooler it’s better. So, as I said yesterday, we’re working so hard to improve this. We’ve been fortunate that we’re racing here this weekend because two weekends ago in England it was 34 degrees so that’s not how we should be out racing.”
Less competitive than expected
When asked about if they were expecting the reward at Silverstone as the weather looked to be cooler, Russell explained that the team was expecting more from their performance. Russell expressed:
“I do think today was probably, on the whole, less competitive than we were potentially expecting. I think the likes of Ferrari have been very competitive this weekend, which was a bit of a surprise. McLaren have brought some little upgrades, we didn’t really bring anything. We haven’t brought anything for a while now so we just need to try and understand that.“
While the Mercedes team have not brought upgrades in a bit, the team showed a stunning performance a few weeks back at the Canadian GP. The Brit won and the team grabbed their first double podium of the season as his rookie teammate, Kimi Antonelli, finished with a strong P3.
Russell continued on to explain the difference between a circuit like Silverstone and a track like in Canada.
“It is cool, but of course still the circuit is so quick. You’re putting so much energy in the tyres, so much temperature in the tyres. The tyres are running hotter here compared to what they were running in Canada and Canada was 50 degrees track. Here it’s 25 degrees track but just because of the layout so that gives it some perspective.”
Despite Mercedes not having the most straightforward weekend so far at the F1 British GP, the British driver has a good starting point as he lines up P4 on the grid for Sunday’s race.
