The Mercedes driver’s thesis
George Russell he won the Australian GP and does not share all the pessimism that revolves around F1 2026. The perfectly halfway division between electric power and endothermic power created ‘monsters’ in Melbourne with cars that lost speed on the straight in Qualifying, an abomination given that we are talking about what should be the maximum expression of speed motoring.
“It’s different, definitely different, but I think the interesting thing about these rules is that they won’t always be like this on every circuit we race at – Russell said in the press conference – the next stop is Shanghai, where there is a long straight and so most drivers will use their energy on that straight. It is not necessary to divide it between four extensions as is done here in Melbourne. We are always too hasty in criticizing when reaching conclusions. When we had the better cars and the least tire degradation everyone complained that the race was crap. Now the drivers are not perfectly satisfied and everyone said it was a fantastic race. Let’s give these rules a few races and then we’ll see.”
Russell also added that he doesn’t look at the ranking that sees him as leader of the World Championship: “For me it’s just another victorywe want to fight for the title and therefore every weekend we will take to the track with the aim of winning. We need to improve our level, many things didn’t go perfectly, starting from the start where we had a completely flat battery.”
