George Russell Names Four Drivers Whose Style Suits Current F1 Cars
· Yahoo Sports
George Russell has identified drivers whose driving style suits the current generation of F1 cars, as he feels he is getting there himself.
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Last year there were discussions about driving styles and how it affected set of F1 drivers then. With the regulation overhaul, it hasn’t been much in discussion this year until now. Mercedes’ Russell has set up the debate around styles and who are the ones who thrive in it.
With the struggles of his own so far to match Mercedes F1 teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Russell believes that a lot of it is down to the driving style. He cites examples from last year to this year about the drivers who are excelling and who are struggling.
Apart from the own example, he put the McLaren pair in spotlight. He reckons Lando Norris is doing much better this year than Oscar Piastri, in the same way like Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton is doing against Charles Leclerc and Red Bull teammates of Max Verstappen doing well against the Dutchman.
Russell Expands on Driving Style, Who is Doing Well Against Whom
Formel 1 – Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, Großer Preis von Italien 2026. Kimi AntonelliFormula One – Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, 2026 Italian GP. Kimi Antonelli
He feels that Norris, Hamilton, Verstappen and Antonelli drive in a similar way. Russell is adapting to the changes but in few practice sessions, it is not possible to get it straight. “Yeah, I mean it is like, in a game of football, you are struggling something, they tell you can’t go to the training pitch until the day before the match,” started Russell to media.
“And here, you’ve got two one-hour sessions to try and totally change something and improve upon it, so it has been difficult using the practice sessions as an opportunity to trial things and even in the races themselves having to try things in the races and working on those techniques, so that is just the challenge of Formula 1.
“It has been a strange season when you look at the competitiveness of Piastri against Lando last year, Charles versus Lewis and even the dominance of Max against all of his teammates of the previous era. This year myself, Charles and Oscar are struggling much more compared to our teammates and Max’s teammates have been substantially closer to him than anybody has in the past six years.
“I think we’ve all got pretty similar driving styles and the drivers are performing very well this year like Kimi, Lewis and Lando have also got quite similar driving styles, so to me it’s pretty clear with this car, with these tyres, what I need to achieve and the trends are there with those four drivers I just mentioned,” summed up Russell.
Russell Sees Positive Steps on His End Since Summer Break
Formel 1 – Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, Großer Preis von Spanien 2026. George RussellFormula One – Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, 2026 Spanish GP. George Russell
Even though the gap only extended in the races post summer break to be 81 now against Antonelli, there is positive feelings for Russell. The Brit has seen positive steps in his driving, especially after the summer break. He agrees that there is still a lot to be done.
The focus is on self-improvement, helping Mercedes secure the constructors’ F1 title, as drivers’ title hopes fade away. “I do have an answer and I’m working on it and I think it’s been much improved, so I’m very pleased with that step I’ve taken because fundamentally changing the driving style is achievable for a lot of drivers, but then actually being fast with it is another topic,” said Russell.
“My performance since the summer break has been… I’ve qualified ahead of him in the three qualifying sessions and my race pace has been on a par with him in these two races and I couldn’t say that pre-break, so as I said I’m definitely very pleased with that progression. We’ll have to see where the rest of the season takes us.”