Despite taking pole on Saturday and finishing the race in second place, George Russell faced a challenging weekend at the Barcelona Grand Prix. Mid‑race, the Mercedes drivers began to suffer increasing understeer and a steady loss of tyre performance.
This allowed Lewis Hamilton to execute his three‑stop strategy effectively and gave Kimi Antonelli the chance to close rapidly on Russell, becoming a genuine threat before the final pit stop. It was then that a problem occurred for the Mercedes driver.
During the second stint, Russell reported understeer, which should have prompted the team to adjust the front wing at the pit stop to add downforce, rebalance the car, and limit tyre degradation that was already affecting him.
Problems hit George Russell in the pit stops
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
During that stop, the mechanics were unable to use the tool required to adjust the front wing through the slot on the nosecone. Consequently, instead of a balanced setup, Russell was left with an over‑steer‑prone car that was front‑heavy and had an unstable rear end—far from ideal on a low‑grip, high‑degradation circuit like Barcelona.
“In our final pit stop, we incorrectly adjusted the front wing because of a problem with the adjuster gun, which gave him a very over‑steer‑biased balance that compromised his pace in the final stages,” said Bradley Lord, Mercedes deputy team principal.
Data from Russell’s final stint shows a clear drop in race pace, with an average loss of about 0.7 seconds per lap to Hamilton. The gap widened especially toward the end, as the rear tyres wore more heavily under the over‑steer‑biased setup.
George Russell, Mercedes
Foto di: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
Russell also struggled in the opening laps on fresh tyres, his pace relative to Hamilton was modest and he had to contend with traffic while re‑adjusting to the car’s balance. This made it difficult to recover the time Hamilton had gained.
On a circuit like Barcelona, where the hardest compound already exhibited sliding on Friday—prompting Pirelli to slightly reduce pressures to increase the contact patch—an excessively unbalanced car can significantly affect tyre wear.
While battling the setup issue, Russell was eventually passed by Antonelli. A reliability problem later forced the young teammate to retire, allowing Russell to retain his second‑place podium finish at the chequered flag.