George Russell says he is still trying to gel with his 2026 Mercedes Formula 1 car and tried an “abnormal” driving style to secure the win at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Russell took pole on Saturday and converted it into his second victory of the season on Sunday as he aims to reel in championship leader Kimi Antonelli. With the Italian finishing third, Russell now heads to his Silverstone home race 40 points behind his team-mate.
But Russell’s win was anything but straightforward, coming under pressure from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen while Antonelli looked to have the slight edge on pace too.
Following a number of bruising defeats to Antonelli, and a power unit failure while leading in Canada, Russell felt his Barcelona pole and his Austria performance were key in reminding himself of his own ability.
“The tough races definitely test you psychologically, and these last two weekends for me have been vitally important to remind myself I can do it,” he said. “It’s been a tough couple of months with some really tricky races, with races that felt like everything was going against me, then some races with some tough performances.
“I’ve got a really incredible team-mate next to me, who week in, week out is delivering some pretty spectacular performances. So, for me, going into Canada, going into Barcelona from quite a low point, I needed a lot of resilience to be able to get back and deliver some strong performances.
“So, to get the last two poles, to get the win here this weekend, especially on a track which I don’t think is so suited to me, I’m really proud.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Pauline Ballet – Formula 1
That doesn’t mean Russell is now fully on top of his 2026 car, as he is still adjusting his driving style to get the most out of Mercedes’ winning package following a radical regulations overhaul.
“I have a lot of confidence in myself, knowing I can do it. I have less confidence in being able to get everything aligned with the car, the set-up and the tyres, because it’s just been so up and down for me,” he conceded.
That’s why he employed a different driving style to manage his tyres during the scorching race at the Red Bull Ring, in the knowledge that his previous approach likely wouldn’t have worked.
“The team has done a really incredible job to put some real answers down as to why the performances were not good,” he explained. “It was clear what the problem was, and it was clear how we could maybe solve that. And when we perhaps looked through some historical data, there were some trends of this, and it’s all just been exacerbated with this new car.
“Coming into this race weekend maybe my previous approach would have really hurt me on a track like this. And I drove the race very differently and quite abnormally, to be honest, to manage the tyres, and it worked quite well.
“Last year, I really knew how to handle the tyres on hot tracks, cold tracks, smooth surfaces, rough surfaces. And this year, I don’t, to be honest. So, I’m rebuilding that.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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