George Russell is relieved to back on podium in F1 Hungarian GP but he is not getting carried away, as he shares his thoughts on move by Charles Leclerc.
After the disaster in F1 Belgian GP, Mercedes decided to revert to old specification of its rear suspension which they were using before its Imola update. It was to ascertain if the suspension played any role in their down run in the last few weekends where Ferrari picked up.
It seemed like difficulties persisted to a certain extent, but the handling and drivability improved for both Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The old suspension helped them extract more from the car and the Brit managed to secure Top 5 result in qualifying and finished where he wanted to.
In the race, he managed to keep Lando Norris at bay for few laps and mostly stayed with both the McLaren cars and Ferrari’s Leclerc. The troubles for Monegasque eventually helped him to end up third and secure a return to the podium after missing out in the last few rounds.
He was relieved to be back but didn’t wish to be carried away by the results just yet. “Yeah, it’s good to be back on the podium,” said Russell. “It’s obviously been a challenging run of form for us as a team these last six or so races, so it’s a great way to enter the break. We reverted on some of the items we brought.
“Early in the season we brought a new rear suspension that clearly wasn’t performing as we’d have hoped. But it was also a pretty unique weekend. You see the results by McLaren, and it was quite an unusual finishing order from P3 down. Obviously, Max was quite out of position. The Astons had a really strong race weekend as well. So, I don’t think we should get carried away with the result.
“But, clearly, in terms of pace, it was our best race of the season bar Canada,” summed up Russell, who had a mini fight against Leclerc late in the race for third. The Monegasque made it tough for the Brit to pass, but the Mercedes driver hustled through at Turn 1 – not before complaints on the radio.
The stewards agreed with Russell and handed Leclerc a 5s time penalty for erratic driving. The Brit wasn’t too happy with the Monegasque moving under braking. “When you’re coming down the straight at 330 and you sort of dive into the corner, you’re right on the limit of your car’s grip,” he continued. “You can’t just brake and turn to avoid somebody because you’re already at the limit of that grip.
“So, I made my intentions really clear, diving to the inside, and he moved after he had committed to braking, which is not allowed in the rules because of that reason. So, he did it once. I wasn’t happy about it. Second time, I was like, well, I’m going to just send it down the inside now, and he did it again, and we made contact. I was glad to get by. But I think when you watch it on TV, you think, “Oh, why can’t you just turn to avoid it?” But as I said, you are right on the limit of the car’s potential.”
Here’s George Russell passing Charles Leclerc: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-hungarian-gp-russell-overtakes-leclerc-for-p3-after-close-battle-on-track.1839446110743029931
Here’s Charles Leclerc on George Russell complaints
Here’s how F1 Hungarian GP panned out