George Russell hails “back to basics” F1 reset after taking Barcelona GP pole

George Russell has revealed how a “back to basics” reset aided him on his way to pole position at the Formula 1 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, after a poor run of form.

Russell has led the way for Mercedes this weekend, with Kimi Antonelli unable to match his more experienced team-mate, who took pole position by 0.064s from Lewis Hamilton.

But after failing to score in either of the last two grands prix, the Briton hit the ground running on Friday, taking advantage as Antonelli sat out FP1 to allow rookie Fred Vesti some track time.

“I’ve got to be honest, I’m just really happy to be back in my groove over the course of the whole weekend,” said Russell.

“It’s been a difficult few races for me, obviously, bad luck, and there have been some poor performances in there.

“But I went back to an approach that I knew works for me this weekend, and more important than the pole position for me was just seeing every lap of the whole weekend I was in the top two positions. I felt confident, I felt good, and I just felt like my old self again.

“So, regardless of what happened in Q3 where Lewis did an amazing job and also could have got the pole position as well, that was the most important thing for me this weekend.”

Asked if these changes had been from a driving or car setup point of view, he added: “Car setup, mentality, just going back to basics, really. These cars are so complicated, the tyres are complicated, the power units are complicated, and it’s challenging to get on top of things, especially when I’ve got a guy like this next to me who has been performing so well.

“You’re trying to constantly improve and I think that doing some copy-pasting probably really put me on the back foot.

“So, as I said, this weekend, I’ve just gone in my own direction and that’s what I’ve done in the past for the last few years, and I’m really glad to see it paying off.”

Russell was dominant at the season-opener in Australia, but has since suffered a string of problems, some of which have been beyond his control.

Quizzed if this is the best he has felt in the car, he said: “It just feels back to what I felt at the start of the year during winter testing, in Barcelona, Bahrain testing, Melbourne, and China. I felt really comfortable in the car, really happy.

“Miami was the first weekend where everything felt pretty challenging, and that’s where I think I can accept, and with my direct group of engineers, we can probably accept that we made some wrong decisions in these last three races.

“So as I said, more than this pole position, I’m just glad to feel myself again, feel as one with the car again as I have done for the last few years.”