George Russell has explained the “miscommunication” that led to him not using his desired tyre choice during the final qualifying session for the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver used soft Pirelli rubber in Q3, but disagreed with the choice via team radio saying “I wanted mediums” after asking “we’ve the softs on, is that right?” at Monza.
Russell topped Q1 on medium tyres and Mercedes is one of the few teams to have saved two fresh sets of that compound until qualifying in Monza, because the Briton felt more comfortable on them compared to the softs.
“It was just a miscommunication with me and the team,” said Russell, who eventually qualified sixth but will start in fifth due to a grid drop for Lewis Hamilton.
“So they are not really to blame. It’s probably I’m as much to blame that I didn’t make it clear. I just thought with the lap time I showed, I just presumed.
“I said after Q1 the medium feels great, and would you consider it for Q3? And then I said in the middle of Q2, after my first lap, I’d like to run the medium in Q3.
“Then I said in the garage, ‘are we sticking to the plan?’ And they said ‘yes’, and I thought the plan was medium, but the plan was soft. So that’s why it was a surprise. As I said, I’m as much to blame. We should have discussed it more.”
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Marco Canoniero / LightRocket via Getty Images
Russell qualified 0.365s off polesitter Max Verstappen, but reckons his qualifying position wouldn’t have been too different had he opted for mediums anyway.
“The gap was obviously pretty large in the end, but I just felt much more comfortable with the medium tyre,” the 27-year-old added.
“I didn’t really do good laps in Q3. I only improved one and a half tenths from Q1 on the medium to my fastest lap in Q3.
“So you normally talk improvement of probably five or six tenths. And bearing in mind the lap in Q1, I’ve done two laps on the tyre. So you just look at those numbers, you would think substantially faster than what I did achieve. Anyway, P5 is probably a deserving position. We qualify for P6 and we start in P5.”
It is only the seventh time this year that pole has not gone to either of the championship-leading McLarens, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri respectively second and third.
When asked why Mercedes wasn’t able to topple McLaren like Red Bull did, Russell replied: “Ultimately I think we just underperformed slightly in Q3. This is definitely a circuit that doesn’t really suit McLaren’s strength. It’s low-degradation.
Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
“You can see people doing multiple laps on the same tyre. Tomorrow will be an easy one-stop and that’s not where they excel.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff agreed that the tyre mishap was a “miscommunication”, and the Austrian was left frustrated as Russell will share the third row with team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
When asked by Sky Sports Germany how satisfied he was with qualifying, Wolff said: “Not at all. I think we had a fast car, but we didn’t make any progress during the session.
“Everyone else improved, but we didn’t. We had everything under control in terms of strategy, so we were hoping for more.”
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