George Russell reveals bold car changes to cure F1 race pace woes

George Russell has revealed that Mercedes have made “a lot of changes” to try to improve their race pace ahead of the F1 Spanish Grand Prix.

Russell’s strong qualifying form continued at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, securing fourth on the grid for Sunday’s race.

The British driver has consistently qualified in the top five this year, with Monaco the only weekend he hasn’t.

However, Russell have tended to struggle on race day, particularly when temperatures are high.

With track temperatures expected to be scorching on Sunday, it could be a difficult day for Mercedes.

Reflecting on qualifying in Barcelona, Russell said: “We know that on a Saturday our car is anywhere between P2 and P5. That’s where it’s been all season and again today.

“It’s good we managed to get into Q3 on only two sets of tyres so we have a new soft tyre for tomorrow which is a valid race tyre - that’s a positive. We know that the car isn’t quick on Sundays.”

Russell notes “silver lining” for Mercedes

Mercedes have made a number of changes to its car setup in a bid to cure their Sunday woes.

Despite these changes, Mercedes’ qualifying pace was unaffected.

Russell is hopeful that Pirelli’s tyre allocation being on the harder side (C3-C2-C1) will work in their favour as it did in Bahrain.

“I think so. We also made a lot of changes to the car this weekend to try and improve the race pace so to see that we haven’t really hindered quali pace is a positive but then also it may mean it’s not going to improve the race pace,” Russell added.

“Tomorrow’s going to be an interesting one for us. We struggled a lot when it was the soft compound of tyres when it was hot but when it was the hard compound of tyres in Bahrain and it was hot we finished second there.

“When the tyres overheat by 10 degrees on a C4, it’s much more punishing than 10 degrees on a C1 tyre. That’s the only slight silver lining to give us a bit of hope for tomorrow.”