George Russell insists that he doesn’t “see any reason” why Mercedes will not get themselves back into the fight for the top five positions during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend off the back of two slightly more challenging races in Imola and Monaco.
After a strong run of form across the opening rounds of the season, the Silver Arrows have endured tougher outings of late, with Russell slipping from third to seventh in the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix while team mate Kimi Antonelli recorded a DNF owing to a mechanical issue.
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F1’s visit to Monte Carlo then proved to be particularly difficult for the team after problems in Qualifying put Russell and Antonelli down in P14 and P15 on the grid, before the pair ended Sunday’s race in 11th and 18th respectively.
Reflecting on what has been taken from the debriefs in the aftermath of Monaco, Russell admitted during media day in Barcelona that the squad’s weekend “was over from Saturday”.
Mercedes faced two difficult weekends in Imola and Monaco
“It was a real shame because we lost our way slightly during the weekend in Monaco, but we went back to a known set-up in Q1 and we were right back in the groove, right back inside the top four which is where we’ve been always on Saturday afternoons this year, so that was a real shame,” the Briton explained.
Now the focus for Russell and Mercedes is to have a clean weekend in Spain as they look to regain the momentum previously built during the earlier stages of the season.
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“It’s obviously been two poor races,” the 27-year-old conceded. “We’ve been inside of the top five every single session up until Imola, so we’re hoping to get back into our usual form and have a clean weekend.
“With the changes to the front wing [regulation], there’s a bit of relearning all of the teams will have to take, but I don’t expect it to shake the order up too much.”
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The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya brought success for Mercedes in 2024, with the team ending the event in third and fourth places. In terms of whether they can replicate that this weekend should they have a clean outing, Russell responded: “Yeah, I don’t see any reason why not.
“As I said, up until Imola we’ve been inside that top five every single Quali and race, and of course Imola was a bad race and Monaco things [were] slightly out of our control, so I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t be back in that fight for the top five.
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“Hopefully [we’ll be] fighting for the podium, but we do know our race pace especially in hot races is a step behind McLaren, and this weekend is going to be very hot.
“The track’s going to be over 50 degrees for the majority of the weekend, the only difference being here is we’re on the harder compound of tyres, whereas in Imola and in Jeddah where we struggled the most this season it was on the softest compound of tyres, so that’s one small change.”
Antonelli is hoping for a better weekend in Barcelona after failing to score points since Miami
On the other side of the garage, Antonelli echoed Russell’s sentiments in regards to getting back to the team’s previous rhythm during the weekend ahead as he continues through his rookie season.
“[The first part of the season] definitely went by super quick – it’s great to think we’re already on Round 9, so time went by super quick,” said Antonelli. “It’s been a lot of highs, a lot of lows as well. It’s about now trying to find that consistency and trying to put everything together.
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“I think the last two weekends on my side were not the best, also especially struggling with the new C6 [tyre compound], but this weekend [we go] back to more usual compounds, and hopefully we can get back to the nice rhythm that we had before Imola.”
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