Russell’s jokes binned Mercedes part worked for his style as it was ‘slower’
George Russell won the Canadian GP with the upgraded rear suspension
Binning the W16’s upgraded suspension, George Russell joked that he was able to get better results with it than Kimi Antonelli because “it’s slower”.
But reverting to the older-specification rear suspension setup in Hungary, the Briton is relieved to again have confidence in the car.
George Russell: Because it’s slower!
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
Mercedes made a strong start to the F1 2025 championship with Russell on the podium in four of the opening six races while his rookie team-mate Antonelli was a regular points scorer.
But upgrading the W16’s rear suspension setup at Imola, round seven, the Brackley squad took a step backwards.
So much so, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff revealed the team binned it ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
“I think that we tried to solve a problem with the Imola upgrade, with a mechanical upgrade,” he said. “That may or may not have solved an issue, but it let something else creep into the car.
“That was an instability that basically took all confidence from the drivers, and it took us a few races to figure that out.
“Obviously, we were also misled a little bit by the Montreal win, we thought maybe that’s not so bad, and we came to the conclusion it needs to go off, it went off, and the car is back to solid form.”
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Russell returned to the podium with a third-place result in Budapest with Antonelli back in the points after a troubled run for the Italian teenager, who felt Russell’s driving style made it easier for him to negate the negative effects of the upgrade.
“Because it’s slower!” Russell joked with the media, including PlanetF1.com, when asked about his team-mate’s assessment. “As simple as that.
“Kimi has struggled more than I have with the suspension, but my results have also been worse collectively. These last six races have been the worst races of our season.
“At the start of the year, I had much more confidence. The laps were coming easy, whereas now it’s much more challenging, so there’s never guarantees, but I think that could be a small, small part.”
Russell touched on Mercedes’ suspension issue when he spoke with Channel 4 after the grand prix having joined Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on the podium.
Conceding that not all upgrades work as planned, the Briton says Mercedes was perhaps “too slow” in reverting to the old setup as it ran six race weekends with the update before making the call.
“It’s been a really difficult run of form for us,” he said. “You’re always trying to bring performance to the car, and you do some things that you hope or you expect that’s going to take you that step forward.
“But it doesn’t always work like that.
“You always need to give it a couple of races to sort of see if the reason why you’re off to pace is down to this upgrade, or not.
“Because you could have the exact same car or season. Some tracks you good, some tracks you’re not.
“And I think maybe we were slightly too slow to react to reversing back to something we knew, but you’ve also got to give it that opportunity in the hope it does bring something.”
Russell is fighting Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc for a spot on the F1 2025 podium, 15 points behind the Red Bull driver, who is third, and 21 points ahead of the Ferrari driver.
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