George Russell: Hard substances will be Mercedes’ “only silver lining”
In the development of its W16 for 2025, Mercedes has inevitably maintained one of its essential weak points from last season– poor thermal management, especially at the rear axle.
Although this is really helpful in cooler races, as shown by its supremacy of 2024’s Las Vegas race, Mercedes is vulnerable to overheating its tires amid higher temperature levels.
Both Mercedes chauffeurs tried long terms in FP2 on the soft tire in an effort to work out a set-up to keep the tires away from the realms of thermal destruction on Sunday– Russell did an 18-lap stint, Andrea Kimi Antonelli a 16-lap stint.
Russell felt that his results up until now at Barcelona mentioned the concept that Sunday’s race will be challenging, as the group had fulfilled its expected qualifying efficiency, with Russell taking fourth and team-mate Antonelli in 6th.
Nevertheless, considered that the race is on the C1-2-3 suite of Pirelli tires, the Briton was pinning his hopes on the idea that the hardest tyre would suffer less drop-off under overheating versus the softer grades of rubber.
“We understand that on a Saturday our cars and truck is anywhere between P2 and P5, that’s where it’s been all season,” Russell stated.
“And once again today, so it’s good we handled to get to Q3 just on 2 sets of tyres, so I have actually got a brand-new soft tire tomorrow which is a valid race tire, so that’s a favorable. However we’re reasonable, we understand that the car isn’t quick on Sundays.
George Russell, Mercedes Image by: Sam Bloxham/ Motorsport Images
by means of Getty Images”We likewise made a lot of modifications to the automobile this weekend to try and improve the race rate, so to see that we have not actually hindered the qualifying rate is a positive. But then also it might suggest it’s not going to improve the race rate. [The race] is going to be a fascinating one for us.
“We struggled a lot when it was the soft substance of tyres when it was hot, but when it was the hard substance of tyres in Bahrain and it was hot, we clearly completed second there.
“So it’s when the tyres get too hot, let’s say if the tyres get too hot by 10 degrees on a C4, it’s a lot more penalizing than 10 degrees on a C1 tyre. So that’s sort of the only small silver lining to offer us a little wish for tomorrow.”
Antonelli concurred, although he accentuated the long-run data that Mercedes had accrued over the Friday practice sessions.
Check out Also:
The Italian felt that Mercedes’ return to its normal Saturday type after a bruising pair of races at Imola and Monaco was partially down to rolling back on the suspension package it required to the Emilia-Romagna round. He included that the team would need more time to get its head around the impacts before restoring it to the automobile.
“I think tomorrow is going to be actually hard with the hot temperature level and we’ll see, but the objective is to try and keep those tyres [in the very best possible condition],” he said.
“We have actually been doing a lot of long terms, we have rather a great deal of data, but the others are also very strong.
“Returning with a great quali rate, it felt quite together. Let’s see if we can have that sensation in the race.”
Pictures from Spanish GP – Race
In this article
Jake Boxall-Legge
Formula 1
Be the very first to understand and subscribe for real-time news e-mail updates on these topics