George Russell admits high temperatures could hinder Mercedes’ race pace in Montreal as he eyes a long-awaited 2024 Formula 1 win.
George Russell is confident in the potential of his car, as long as temperatures don’t get too high. The Mercedes F1 driver outlines the weather variables that could play a crucial role in his result.
“I’m not too sure. To be honest, we had good race pace on Friday, but that depends on the temperature. During practice, it was five degrees cooler than today, and the car was easily in its comfort zone. Now, it could just as easily go the other way in the race,” said Russell.
“If the sun comes out – it’s a 2 p.m. race, qualifying was at 4 p.m. – that makes a big difference. So it won’t be an easy race and, of course, I’ve got some very fast guys around me. We don’t know if it will be a one or two-stop race, so it won’t be straightforward.”
He’s expecting a full-on fight with Max Verstappen at the start: “I think it’s obvious that we’re both fighting for the win here, and neither of us is really in a championship fight. I haven’t won this year, so I want to take a win.”
According to the Briton, it’s the temperatures and weather that will determine the gap to McLaren in race pace: “It really depends on these temperatures. Right now, the tyres aren’t really overheating.”
“And every time we go to a track where the tyres don’t overheat, like here, like in Vegas last year, we do very well. McLaren were off the pace on Friday. So it depends on the race. If there are clouds, we could be two tenths ahead of McLaren.”
“If the sun appears, it sort of neutralises everything. I wish I could say more than that – it’s a bit out of our control for now. But whatever the conditions, we’re obviously starting from the best place.”
Already on pole at this circuit last year, Russell doesn’t know how the race will unfold, as it’s one of the most eventful rounds of the season, in addition to: “In Montreal, you can’t ignore the weather or what happens on the track.”
“It’s a street circuit. You have to fight until the final lap of the race. And yes, last year was a bad race for me, and I felt it could have gone differently. So obviously I’ll do my best to make up for last year’s losses. But this year is totally different.”
“As we’ve already said, we don’t know how the race will go because the hard tyre is the one we’ll all be using at some point during the race, and nobody knows whether that tyre will go the distance to give you a one-stop strategy or not. So it’s going to snowball.”
