George Russell demands talks over ‘infuriating’ issue impacting every Formula 1 driver

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Mercedes driver George Russell has had a bizarre campaign, having inherited some of his best results – and arguably losing his most important one – right at the end of each race weekend.

George Russell inherited his only win of the season in Austria when Max Verstappen and Lando Norris came to blows in the closing stages of the race but Russell should have won in Canada two races previously were it not for several key errors.

The Brit should have had the perfect opportunity to win on home soil at Silverstone before a technical fault with his Mercedes ended his chances in changeable conditions.

Russell then believed he had pulled off a fantastic one-stop strategy at Spa only for his car to be underweight at the end of the Grand Prix.

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So, the 26-year-old was pleased to have inherited a podium late in the day at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix following Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez’s late collision.

However, speaking to the press on the F1 Post-Race Show in the driver’s pen, Russell wasn’t as happy as many would have thought.

Mercedes haven’t made the progress they would have liked this season and in part, that’s down to how difficult he and Lewis Hamilton have found it to keep the tyres in the right zone.

Russell was unable to pick up any marbles on his Pirelli tyres in Spa, which may have saved him from being disqualified, but this is an entirely different issue.

The driver – who heads the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association – believes all of his rivals on the track are unhappy with just how difficult the tyres are to use and thinks even Pirelli themselves don’t fully understand the issue.

George Russell pinpoints ‘infuriating’ Pirelli issue after Azerbaijan Grand Prix podium

Reflecting on the race, Russell said: “We’ll definitely take the podium, but it was such an odd race.

“The first half of the race, we were 1.5 seconds off the pace. The last 20 laps, I was a second quicker than Oscar and Charles and three-tenths quicker than Max, Checo and Carlos.

“It’s the same circuit, same driver, same car; we just went from a yellow tyre to a white tyre.

“Honestly, it’s actually pretty infuriating that it changes this much and it’s not just Mercedes, it’s every team and every driver.

“One session you’re fast, the next you’re not and there’s only one thing that changes.”

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Asked if he’ll ask Mercedes to dig into the data, Russell admitted: “It’s black magic, I think even the people who make the tyres don’t understand the tyres.

“I think we all need probably [to have] serious conversations again about what’s going on because we’ve got 2,000 people working their butts off to deliver the fastest car and 20 laps of the race, we had a car that was comfortable of fighting for victory.

“The other 20 laps, we had a car that probably shouldn’t have been in the points and the only difference is the tyres, it’s not good enough really.”

Guenther Steiner sends George Russell warning in the F1 driver’s market

Russell has seven Grand Prix weekends left to try and move up the Drivers’ Championship standings and is now level on points with Sergio Perez.

The Brit will be the lead driver alongside Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes, who Toto Wolff has extremely high hopes for.

Former Haas team boss Guenther Steiner believes Russell could be in trouble after next year when his contract runs out.

Max Verstappen isn’t happy at Red Bull, and if he becomes available, Wolff will do everything he can to secure his signature.

That means it would be a shootout between Russell and Antonelli to stay with the team, and it means Russell needs to destroy his future teammate to stay with the Silver Arrows.