George Russell and representatives from Pirelli came together ahead of this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix to discuss the Mercedes driver’s strong criticism of the F1’s tyre supplier’s product after last weekend’s race in Baku.
While Russell secured the final spot on the podium in Azerbaijan, the Briton voiced his frustration over the inconsistent performance of Pirelli's tyres, having struggled on the medium compound but shone on the hard rubber?
Russell described the performances fluctuations between compounds as “infuriating” and “not good enough”.
“Honestly, it is actually pretty infuriating that it changes this much,” he said, reflecting on the issue after the race in Baku.
“It’s not just the Mercedes, it’s every team and every driver. One session, you’re fast, the next you’re not. And there’s only one thing that changes.
“It’s black magic. I think even the people who make the tyres don’t understand the tyres.
“I think we all need probably serious conversations again about what’s going on, because we’ve got 2,000 people working their butts off to deliver the fastest car.
“Twenty laps of the race, we had a car that was comfortable of fighting for victory, the twenty other laps we had a car that probably shouldn’t have been in the points – and the only difference is the tyres and it’s not good enough, really.”
Russell’s remarks were not lost on Pirelli, who subsequently held talks with the Briton in Singapore to discuss his grievances.
While Pirelli F1 boss Mario Isola acknowledged Russell's concerns, he maintained that the data from Baku did not indicate any unusual performance issues with the tyres.
“I always talk to the drivers, because it’s useful to better understand,” the Italian told F1 TV.
“Obviously in the heat of the moment after the race he had some stuff and we had a chat together.
“He explained to me that obviously he didn’t feel the performance with the medium compound, while the car was quite faster on the hard.
“Looking at the data from all the cars in Baku, we didn’t find anything strange in terms of performance of the tyres.”
Isola emphasized that tyres are just one of many variables influencing a team’s performance over a race weekend.
He highlighted the impact of factors such as car setup, track evolution, and tyre management in the opening laps of a stint.
“I would say that there are many elements that are contributing to the performance: the set-up of the car, how gently you introduce the tyre in the first laps, the track evolution,” he explained.
“So when you have a championship where any thousandth of the second counts in the final result, obviously the stress is at a very high level and also a small difference in performance could play a role in the final result.”
Isola also pointed out that other teams, like Williams and McLaren, performed well on both compounds during the race, suggesting that the issue may have been more specific to Mercedes rather than a widespread problem.
“But Williams was performing quite well with both the compounds as well as McLaren and other teams,” Isola added.
“So we should look specifically at what happened to Mercedes, but we usually make analysis that are across all the teams.”
Despite the meeting with Isola, Russell’s frustration with tyre performance seemed far from resolved, as evidenced by his comments during qualifying at Marina Bay on Saturday.
Over team radio during Q1, he remarked, “I don’t understand these bloody tyres. I don’t understand how we lose eight tenths one session to the next. So different.”
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