George Russell reckons the tyres needs to be looked at after another one-stop run in F1 Japanese GP, as Andrea Kimi Antonelli spills on gaining utmost confidence.
It was status quo in the end for both the Mercedes drivers, Russell and Antonelli, in F1 Japanese GP, finishing fifth and sixth as they started. Neither could make inroads in the sense that the Brit couldn’t get to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc despite trying to pit early and gamble on the traffic chaos.
The undercut didn’t actually work. After another one-stop race, Russell reckons the resurface is helping the tyres to be more durable. It is something that can be looked at, especially the compounds handed out. The strategy call he took was discussed in debrief as Bradley Lord revealed.
The team’s communications manager Lord spoke to media after the race, after Toto Wolff skipped the event. While Russell had a straightward outing, the run of Antonelli was a confidence booster for the Italian, especially after the struggles he faced on Friday in the practice.
He stepped up in qualifying and the grand prix finished off well, where they went longer on the first set after changing strategy during the grand prix. He had nothing to lose to try out. It didn’t gain him a place, but he became the youngest driver to lead a grand prix, surpassing Max Verstappen.
It also allowed him to set the fastest lap, where again he surpassed Verstappen to be the youngest to do so. He tried to catch Russell but ran out of laps to try and hustle him in giving up. He now feels that he can push from the get go after three weekends of learning the nuances.
Race, tyre –
Russell: “I think these last two weekends the tyre compounds have been too hard… It’s been an easy one-stop for both races, and that’s just really taken any fun from the strategy. I hope we can maybe react as a sport because we all finished where we started. There just wasn’t enough difference in the tyre degradation. I think in stint one I feel I could have stayed with the McLarens, but we really don’t know.
“You saw this with McLaren, they were the same as Verstappen. If they were ahead, would they be 1 tenth quicker or 5 tenths quicker? For me, I was just doing the same lap times as Charles. Ultimately, you could only go as fast as the driver in front. I think realistically, P4 would’ve been the maximum from this weekend. We finished P5, so not ideal, but not terrible.”
Antonelli: “I’m much, much happier with today, much better than China. I was really happy about the pace. Finally, we showed some good pace and consistency, especially on the hard. On the medium, the first 15 laps were a little bit of a struggle. But then, once I got in free air, the pace improved quite a lot. And then, once I went to the hard, it was another step forward. So I’m really happy with that. I have to tell you the plan was different, it was to stop earlier.
“But, as the pace was improving lap by lap and consistent, we decided to stay out, because we had no threat from behind. We just tried something different. And I’m not going to lie, at one point, on medium, it started drizzling. So, I was really hoping for some rain, but unfortunately it didn’t come. At the same time, I cannot complain, because today was a really good experience. At the end, I was really pushing for it [to catch George], I was really trying but unfortunately I ran out of time. But maybe next time, we’ll see.”
Lord (Toto Wolff skipped the weekend): “It is difficult to say, George didn’t really have clear run at it, I suppose in the race but I think if we would have put the car where the potential was on those first two rows, quite anywhere between first and fourth, then I am sure we could have raced there as well. We really had strong pace from Kimi, slightly upset by hard tyre, and was really competitive with the leaders. As for pitting George earlier, we knew the traffic was there, we took that risk.
“We talked about it in the morning, George sort of said ‘I am willing to box into traffic because the tyre condition will enable us to make ground on them’. That was the case and he was able to get through but it just wasn’t quite enough to be able to get past [Charles]. So, we had to try something at that point, it looked like George was not able to close down Leclerc either, so going long wouldn’t necessarily yield that much. Therefore we decided to pull the trigger on the undercut and take that shot, it didn’t quite come off.”
Learning from practice to race –
Antonelli: “Qualifying was a big click. Because, definitely, I was able to feel more the car and push it more already in qualifying. Today was another step forward. I’m really looking forward to exploring even more in the next few weekends. Because, now, I have the feeling that I can again play with the car, something that I couldn’t really do in the previous two weekends. Just because I was a bit more tense while driving. But now, of course, I’m getting more experience with the tyres and the car itself. So, I’m able to feel it more as well. So, definitely a good boost of confidence over the next weekend.
“Definitely, I will go into the weekend with a different kind of confidence because I know the track already. We’ve done testing. So I will be more comfortable with the car and the track. Of course, the conditions will be much different than testing because it’s going to be much, much hotter. So, another good learning. But, also, I feel quite lucky to have someone like George because he’s really been pushing me to do even better. So, definitely, really looking forward to see what we can do next weekend.”
Here’s how F1 Japanese GP panned out
