George Russell: “I accelerate faster than most, but with these F1 engines, that means I consume more electrical energy and it’s not the most efficient way to drive”

George Russell He was the great candidate to win the 2026 title at the beginning of the course. He was the favorite, because he had the dominant car in his hands, with the best engine, and also, much more experience than his teammate, who was supposed to be his opponent for the crown, Kimi Antonelli, who was beginning his second year in F1. In fact, Russell started out winning in the first race in Australia. But from there, he sank, affected by reliability problems and a driving style that harmed him in these new F1s.

Russell had just clearly beaten Kimi Antonelli in 2025. But Kimi not only improved, but also adapted perfectly to cars where one of the main keys is electrical energy management. in new engines with up to 50% of the total electrical power.

Russell already revealed in September in an interview in Mundo Deportivo one of the crucial factors that harmed him and forced him to have to change his style.

“I’m not suffering with the car. It’s with the tyres. 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,” he said. How did it affect him? It degraded the wheels more due to their more aggressive style.

“I think I just need to find a way to balance the tires a little better between the front and rear axle. What I want to say 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 said. And he warned that there was nothing he could do with the setup of his car.

There was only one solution: change its steering, a difficult process that can take months or an entire year. And the thing is that a driver, if he thinks about the car doing things differently, loses tenths in each corner. You need to change that style and make it your own, so that it comes out automatically.

At that time, Russell was optimistic about the steps forward he was making in that process. But in these last races, his suffering has increased: Mercedes has implemented some evolutions that reduce the car’s correct performance window. If you’re not in it, you’re slow. If he already suffered before, now he suffers more compared to Kimi, who in Austin already showed that he had adapted.

But there is another factor that Russell had not revealed before, related to this more aggressive way of driving: he usually tries to accelerate earlier at the exit of the curve, but as he acknowledged in Mexico, this harms him with the new engines.

“I think there are several factors related to this year’s cars that can help or hinder certain driving styles,” Russell explained.

“I have always been a driver who focuses on the middle and exit of corners, which often means that I accelerate earlier than most. With these new power units, that means I consume more electrical energy and, sometimes, it is not the most efficient way of driving for the power unit,” he argued.

And then he reiterated the problem that already advanced in MD months ago. “Secondly, tire pressures this year, especially in the rear, have been very high. Pirelli is leaving a margin of several PSI, especially on the rear axle. So, once again, that has hurt me a little bit in the way I approach corner exits. “The rear tire doesn’t handle it as well and it has also been a disadvantage when it comes to the power unit,” he said.

“I think those two factors have greatly affected my natural driving style and I would say that it has probably been what has affected me the most this season”he concluded on the matter.

Your irregular year

“At the beginning of the year I left Monaco after a very difficult weekend for me and went to Barcelona, where I set the best time in all the sessions and got the pole. Then I went to Austria, the next race, and got the pole again. However, a few races later I was qualifying in fifth or sixth position. In Baku I got the pole by eight tenths and then, in Malaysia, I think I qualified eighth, maybe seventh,” he said, highlighting the irregularity of his results and the benefits he achieved,

“I think in previous years I managed to use the car’s potential quite well and, perhaps, at the end of the season I could point out four or five races in which I had not made the most of it. I remember that in 2022 we finished in the top five more times than any other driver during the entire season: I think it was 19 of the 22 races, and we had the third best car on the grid. And this season we have the best car and I am not being able to achieve those results. It’s quite strange and, of course, it’s making us think a lot. And it’s not for lack of effort.”he finished.

Think 2027

But he doesn’t throw in the towel. The 2026 title will go to his teammate Kimi, but he wants these difficulties to make him stronger to fight for the 2027 crown.

“I think that, for any driver on the grid, there is only one position that matters: the first. Being the best of the rest is not exactly something you dream of as a child. Of course, I want to finish as high as possible and win as many races as I can. But for me it is more important to finish the season with a good dynamic than to achieve a certain position in the final classification,” he explained.

“If I finish second, third, fourth or fifth, what will keep me awake or let me sleep peacefully will be my performance, not so much that position.” He must finish the course in a positive trend to ensure that in 2027, his style will adapt to these much criticized F1 engines and the new regulations.