First taste
After being the fastest of all in the FP1 session, George Russell dropped to fifth place in the FP2 timesheet, taking a delay of over three tenths from teammate Kimi Antonelli. Speaking at the end of the day with journalists present in Madrid for this historic first GP on the Madring track, however, the British Mercedes driver focused mainly on the issues that this new track seems to present: from the close walls to the difficulty in overtaking, through a tire degradation that is worrying drivers and teams.
Degradation and overtaking, so many problems
“It is undoubtedly a very high-risk circuit and I think today all the drivers are giving themselves a certain safety margin; we will see how it goes tomorrow – Russell observed – tire wear? It was a hypothesis we had considered; it often happens with new asphalts. The grip is very high, but it slips quite noticeably. With the setup used in FP1, a six-stop race would have been the fastest strategy – he added, ironically but perhaps not so much – the situation slightly improved in FP2 and I am sure it will be even better in the race on Sunday, but this remains the main question mark“.
However, a very high tire degradation could be the only way to see some action on the track on Sunday, during the GP: “Overtaking? I think it will be very difficult – Russell stated – if we were to find the level of tire degradation seen in FP1, things would be a bit easier, but yes, it will still be tough“, he concluded.
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