Russell: “Ferrari in front, it doesn’t make sense. I’m far from Antonelli and Hamilton, I have to understand why”

The unexpected Englishman George Russell chews bitterly at the end of the Sprint Qualifying at Silverstone and it couldn’t be otherwise: the Mercedes Englishman was beaten across the board. He only achieved the fifth fastest time while his teammate and title rival Andrea Kimi Antonelli is on the front row and in pole position is Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari, which has subverted all predictions. The general opinion was that in Great Britain the reds should have suffered and limited the damage, but instead it was Russell who found himself behind, beaten on the flying lap in SQ3 also by Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc after having even risked a sensational elimination in SQ2. It doesn’t make sense “To be honest, it’s a bit of the story of this year – Russell said at the end of the session to the official F1 channel – we always start by finding ourselves in difficulty. Usually, when we get to Q3, I manage to take a step forward. Today, however, it didn’t go quite like that. I was very close to third place, but still well away from the pace of Lewis and Kimi, so I have to try to understand why. It’s a bit strange. To be honest, when I’m on the track the sensations are quite good – he added the #63 of the silver arrows again – we all expected it to go a little worse in terms of driving this type of car on this track, but in reality it went quite well and even in the fastest sections the car seemed good, the lap time just isn’t there, so we need to understand why in view of tomorrow, which is the most important day.” Russell finally admitted that he was taken aback by the performance of the SF-26: “I’m very surprised (by Ferrari). In the past they’ve struggled with PU and energy management and here at the moment they seem to be the best, so it was a real surprise. We’ve always known they have a great chassis, but I think some things don’t quite make sense.” If I had to make a prediction, I would have said Ferrari would be fast last week and we would be fast this week. Obviously Kimi he did a great job, but Ferrari had the upper hand all day,” concluded Russell.

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-07-03 17:15:00