George Russell: “It’s strange. Last year, the front wheels had more pressure. With my aggressive driving style on the rear tyres, this has not been positive”

Before the start of the season, without a doubt, George Russell was the big favorite to win the F1 World Cup and sweep the season with what was expected to be the dominant car of the first year of new aerodynamic and engine regulations. However, the Englishman has seen how his teammate Kimi Antonelli has constantly surpassed him, against all odds.

george He came from being one of the best pilots of the previous era of the F1capable of beating a Lewis Hamilton as a teammate with the ground effect cars, and being very consistent and superior against Kimi in the Italian’s debut year in F1.

But in 2026, with the new cars and engines, everything has changed. What happens to George Russell? Why are you suffering more this year? Russell, in an interview with Mundo Deportivo, revealed the main reason why he is having a hard time extracting his maximum level this season.

There is one aspect that radically changes his performance, and now he is working hard to change his driving style to improve. That’s not simple at all. A pilot must drive almost automatically. If you have to think about not doing something you’ve always done and correcting it corner by corner, that means a loss of key tenths. He is working to make this new way of driving automatic, something like what happened to Sainz at the beginning of 2022 and which he managed to solve for the second part of that season.

Respond to the main rumor in the paddock

In recent months, one of the theories that has been repeated the most in the paddock is that Russel It has been more difficult for him to adapt to the 2026 cars than his partner Kimi because george He had been driving the previous cars for more years, and therefore, he had to unlearn more things and it was much more difficult for him to reset than a Kimi who had only driven one year in F1.

He responded to those rumors in MD.

“Yes and no”he said, before thinking for a few seconds in silence to explain himself in the most correct way.

“I think this season has been strange. If you look at Piastri, last year he was close to winning the championship. On the other hand, this season he is far behind Norris. Or Leclerc, who last year was clearly ahead of Lewis (Hamilton) and also the previous years was always ahead of his teammates. But this season he is behind Lewis. Even Verstappen, compared to Hadjar and also Lawson, has not managed to have his usual advantage (in lap times). Lawson was very close to him in Zandvoort. And Hadjar has also been very close to Verstappen,” he commented at the beginning of his explanation.

“This car is different, that’s clear. It’s not an excuse. It’s reality and it means you have to make changes. I always use the analogy of tennis, with players on different surfaces. You can say that last year it was like playing on hard court and this year it’s like playing on clay. The concept remains the same, but things are different. Clearly, last season, with the previous generation of cars, I felt like I was adapting like a duck to water. Everything was very easy for me,” he argued.

We then reminded him that he had just been one of the best drivers in previous years. “Exactly. And this season has not been the same. But I have been progressing and I see that progress. I am very happy with my last two races, in Zandvoort and Monza. Although the result was not what I wanted, I would say that they were two of the most solid weekends of the entire season. So I am satisfied with that,” he said before suffering again in Madring.

Russell’s problem: the new tire pressure

And it was then that George specified the main problem that is hindering him: the pressures in this year’s tires have changed and that punishes his natural driving style.

“I don’t have a problem with the car, but I have difficulties with the tyres. I am suffering more with the tires than the car itself. There is not a huge amount of things you can do to the car if you cannot solve the tire problem. Last season, on average, the front tires had 3 psi more pressure than the rear ones. This season, on average, it is the other way around in the sense that the values ​​are practically the same on both wheels (front and rear),” he argued.

The solution

“I think I just need to find a way to balance the tires a little better between the front and rear axle. What I mean is that, with my driving style, I am usually more aggressive with the accelerator, which means more wear on the rear tires. But On this car the rear tires are not working as well. “So I need to find a way to shift maybe a little more effort to the front tires instead of the rear tires.”he added, talking about possible solutions.

“It’s very strange to have such high pressures in the rear tyres. With my aggressive driving style on the rear tires, this has not been positive. There’s not much you can do with the car’s setup to compensate for this. It’s more about acting on piloting. “I’m working on that and I hope we find performance.”detailed George who revealed what type of car he likes to drive and how he likes to set the settings of his machine.

“I like a car with a strong front axle (that corners well and oversteers). I always want to have a front axle with a lot of grip; I don’t like understeer too much. I also like a car that is strong when braking. Those are probably the two characteristics I’m looking for,” he concluded.