Russell suspects cause of Red Bull's problems: 'This makes it so difficult'
F1 News
George Russell has come up with an explanation for the performance swings the paddock has been experiencing this season. Two weeks ago in Monza, the grid struggled to find the how the tyres should work in qualifying as an example, with many drivers prefering used ones over a new set. The Briton brought up the challenge Red Bull and Max Verstappen had to face in Italy.
According to the Briton, all F1 teams are struggling with the Pirelli tyres: "Everybody's talking about Red Bull's drop of performance, but Verstappen was second in Q2 in Monza on a set of old tyres, and then put two new sets on in Q3 and went four tenths slower. It's a bit difficult to explain that, because nothing within the car has changed at all other than the tyres," the driver explained to GPblog and others in Baku.
Russell understands challenge for Pirelli
Russell pointed out that Hamilton was among the fastest drivers in the Netherlands in Q1, but was then eliminated in Q2. "I've almost been knocked out in Q1 and then I've been in the top three in Q2. So the tyres are very, very difficult. It's very difficult for Pirelli when you go to different circuits that have totally different tarmacs, different temperatures, different corner speeds. There's so many variables they're trying to manage and it just makes it so difficult for all of the teams."
He concluded: "So maybe we need to avoid one of those unknowns and maybe all tarmacs need to be the same as an example, because you don't really want to be flipping a coin every time you put a new set of tyres on and that seems to be the case quite often."
Co-Author: Ludo van Denderen
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