Stoffel Vandoorne explains what’s left him so ‘surprised’ by George Russell

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George Russell has produced an important turnaround in form at recent races, following several incidents during the 2023 season.

The Briton made numerous mistakes while under pressure, notably during the Canadian Grand Prix and while chasing down Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris for the win at the Singapore GP.

Much of this could be linked to how hard his Mercedes was to drive last season, with the W14 providing both Russell and teammate Lewis Hamilton with a difficult setup platform to extract performance.

Russell’s performance this season has started to resemble his debut year with Mercedes, in which he scored seven podiums including a race win in the difficult W13.

Halfway through the 2024 season, he has already matched his finishing position in the Drivers’ Championship of eighth and looks set to improve with 10 races left.

This run of form has impressed former F1 driver Stoffel Vandoorne, who praised Russell after coming close to victory in Spa on the F1 Nation podcast.

Stoffel Vandoorne praises George Russell’s tyre management

Russell has historically been one of the better drivers on the grid that can manage the delicate Pirelli tyres. Mercedes credited him with their strong fifth place in Monaco, where drivers were forced to go 75 laps on a single set of tyres following a lap one red flag.

Vandoorne noted this as one of the traits that has impressed him about Russell when asked whether he has reached a different level while impressing against Hamilton.

“Am I surprised? My reply is yes but also no. Because George is a guy who won in all the junior series he came through, so he’s very talented. Had a couple of years at Williams and was showing already an incredible qualifying pace,” said Vandoorne.

“Mercedes back then could already see how fast he was and what pure speed he had. But he also saw how good he was at managing tyres, so that is a talent George already naturally has within him. When he came into Mercedes, that probably put the pressure on a different level.

“He had his rough patches where he had his crash in Singapore. I’m sure there are other races he had his couple of glitches, but he’s maturing and very much delivering week in and week out.”

Why George Russell was disqualified from the Belgian GP

Russell came close to leapfrogging Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in the Drivers’ Championship after finishing first on the road at the Belgian GP.

Hours after the race finished, the FIA completed their usual post-race checks and found that Russell’s car was under the legal minimum weight of 798kg by 1.5kg.

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As this is a breach of the F1 technical regulations he was disqualified, while Mercedes trackside performance director Andrew Shovlin said they will investigate why Russell’s car was underweight.

It is speculated that Russell’s switch to an unconventional one-stop strategy led to the breach of the rules, with former F1 driver Karun Chandhok debunking speculation that Russell’s car had a weight advantage that enabled him to make the strategy work.