George Russell explained why he missed out on pole position at Suzuka, pointing to a late setup change before qualifying that ultimately worked against him rather than in his favor.
The British driver made an adjustment to the car shortly before the start of qualifying, believing it could improve his performance. However, the change had the opposite effect, leaving him with excessive oversteer and forcing him to chase balance throughout all three qualifying sessions. In his view, this situation significantly impacted his chances of fighting for pole position.
It is often said that winners celebrate, while those who lose explain. That phrase perfectly sums up George Russell’s Saturday. While in China he had legitimate reasons to complain about a Q3 issue that prevented him from fighting on equal terms with his teammate, this time he had to acknowledge the performance of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who made excellent use of the car to secure his second consecutive pole position.
It was precisely at Suzuka, one of the most technical and demanding circuits on the calendar, that twelve months ago the young Italian had shown the first clear signs of his emerging talent. During the second half of the race back then, Andrea Kimi Antonelli displayed a pace that even put George Russell under pressure, despite it being only his third Formula 1 race. One year later, however, the situation has evolved: it is now an internal battle within Mercedes, where every grid position carries significant weight in terms of championship points.
George Russell has always been considered one of the strongest qualifiers on the grid, consistently delivering impressive performances over a single lap. Even at the start of this season, he showed a slight edge over Andrea Kimi Antonelli in qualifying pace, along with a strong ability to adapt quickly to changing track conditions. However, on this occasion, that was not enough.
According to George Russell, the key factor lies in the setup direction chosen just before qualifying—a decision that had a greater impact than initially expected on his overall performance.
“It was really strange. We made a setup change just before qualifying and the car did not feel the same as it had all weekend. Did you see my first laps in Q1? I was down in seventh or eighth position. We had to make a huge adjustment to the front wing during qualifying to adapt.”
“We do not know if something was done wrong or what exactly happened, but in a way I am happy to still be in this position, because after Q1 I thought I did not know where we would end up,” George Russell explained.
After his first run in qualifying, George Russell reported over the team radio that he was experiencing excessive oversteer. This forced him to react by going in the opposite direction with setup adjustments, reducing the front load in an attempt to recover the lost balance.
In practical terms, the car had been too heavily loaded on the front end. While this condition can offer some advantages during corner entry, especially on a technical circuit like Suzuka, it also requires a very stable rear end. This becomes particularly critical when getting back on the throttle, as the rear can become unstable, and in high-speed corners where the rear axle enters an energy harvesting phase and tends to lose stability.
“We had a mechanical issue at the rear. It was especially noticeable in the esses. I could not attack any corner. The rear was trying to step out all the time. I am sure we will try to understand what happened. There is not much we can do now, but it is still a good position to start from tomorrow and it will be a long race.”
Despite these difficulties, George Russell remained very competitive in the esses section, where he was actually the fastest driver, even outperforming Andrea Kimi Antonelli. In fact, in the first sector the two drivers were almost identical, with George Russell ahead by just two thousandths of a second. The gap opened in the second and third sectors, where he lost time exiting the hairpin, through Spoon corner, and at the final chicane.
In trying to correct the oversteer, George Russell sacrificed some front-end precision during cornering, which also had a negative impact on tyre usage. Since substantial setup changes are not allowed between qualifying and the race, he explained that he would need to adapt his driving style to compensate for the car’s behavior.
“It is not ideal. As I said, I felt really comfortable with the car all weekend, and then in qualifying something just did not seem to work anymore.”
“We will see tonight, maybe we will have some answers. Maybe I can adapt my driving style to compensate, but it was definitely not the session we wanted. For the second race in a row, qualifying has been a bit tricky,” George Russell concluded.
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