George Russell Frustrated With Unusual Trait of Mercedes F1 Car
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
Mercedes driver George Russell has voiced his frustration about an unusual trait of Mercedes' W16 F1 car that makes it temperature-sensitive.
Russell pointed out that the car tends to lose performance at hot Grand Prix venues, but remains dominant under cold weather conditions.
This phenomenon was even highlighted last year by Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, who pointed out that he was unaware of its root cause. With the probability of rain at the British Grand Prix, Russell voiced his frustration because his car's performance was dependent on the weather.
The Briton was fifth-fastest in the first practice session, but the second session saw him drop to eighth place. When asked how close he expected to be to the cars at the front, Russell said:
George Russell of Great Britain and Mercedes walks in the paddock during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone Circuit on July 4, 2025 in Northampton, United Kingdom.
George Russell of Great Britain and Mercedes walks in the paddock during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone Circuit on July 4, 2025 in Northampton, United Kingdom.
Kym Illman
"Well, after today, not very close, but it's been a bit warmer today. The track was 40 degrees [Celsius], and I hope the rest of the weekend it cools down.
"So it's a little bit frustrating for us that every single week we are at the mercy of the weather, and we need to improve that, especially now we're entering the summer months. We're doing everything we can to improve it.
"I think our fortunes will turn slightly for the rest of the weekend, and it will come towards us. But as I said, we can't be at the mercy of the weather, and we are right now."
Despite the car performing well in cold weather, Russell is hoping that the British GP doesn't turn out to be a wet race. He said:
"Coldness, definitely [is what we want]. If it's wet in qualifying, definitely excited for that.
"It's a bit of a unique one, because the wet tyres actually deg [Degrade] more than dry tyres.
"I don't want to get too bogged up in the details here, but actually, a wet race probably wouldn't be ideal. But we just want it nice and... cold and dry would be ideal."
Ferrari's SF25 has been showcasing great progress after a new floor was introduced last weekend. Though not at par with the dominant pace of the McLaren MCL39, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were second and third fastest in the second practice session, below Lando Norris. Pointing out Ferrari's improvement, Russell added:
"Yeah, for sure. Ferrari have really turned it up for the last couple of races.
"They've been strong in race pace all season, really, but they've been having bad qualifying.
"But I think now that we're entering summer, everyone's overheating a little bit more, and we've probably taken a step backwards, and they've taken a step forward purely because of the temperature.
"That's probably not great for them for some reasons, but it's definitely not great for us for other reasons too."
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