George Russell delivered a clean performance at the F1 Chinese GP, securing a well-earned third place finish for Mercedes behind the dominant McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
The British driver, who started from the front row of the grid, maximised his opportunities throughout the weekend to finish ahead of reigning world champion Max Verstappen and both Ferrari drivers.
Russell acknowledged that his strong qualifying performance on Saturday, which saw him split the McLarens on the grid, was fundamental to his podium finish.
“I think it was pretty vital,” Russell said when asked about the importance of his front row start. “Obviously, I lost out to Lando at the first corner. Oscar did a really good job at defending, and it’s always a bit difficult when it’s such a high-speed first corner. I thought I could sneak underneath him, and he covered me pretty well.”
He added, “But for sure, if we qualified behind Max and the Ferraris yesterday, I don’t think we would have been standing on the podium today. So I think that was pretty crucial.”
A one-stop F1 Chinese GP for Russell
Russell executed a well-judged one-stop strategy, which ultimately proved to be the optimal approach for the race conditions. Despite hoping that the McLarens might opt for a different strategy, their pace advantage remained clear throughout.
“I think just being fully maximised every time on track. Really happy with qualifying yesterday, getting in between the McLarens. And then the race today was really strong,” Russell explained.
“Called it pretty early about the one-stop and it was a bit frustrating it was so clear in the end because I was hoping those guys ahead would have gone onto the two-stop.”
The Mercedes driver remained pragmatic about the team’s current position in the competitive order, saying, “And we know at the moment we’re trying our best to catch McLaren—these guys are doing an amazing job. And for us to end up quite a bit ahead of Max and the Ferraris right now, that’s a great result.”
When asked about Mercedes’ pace relative to the McLarens after the first few races of the season, Russell pointed to tyre management as a key differentiator.
“I think their strength is probably in tyre management. And today we saw the one-stop was pretty comfortable,” he observed. “So let’s see when we go to a circuit where it’s much more overheating, like we saw in Melbourne on the Intermediate tyres or like we saw in Bahrain testing. They were even stronger. So they did an amazing job. These two have done a great job, and we need to keep pushing to close that gap.”
Mercedes finding their footing as a team
With his teammate Kimi Antonelli being voted Driver of the Day after finishing eighth, Russell was asked if these results represented a boost for Mercedes.
“Congratulations to him,” Russell said of Antonelli. “Yeah, I mean, we want to get the results obviously as a team and we’re working to try and catch up to McLaren. They’re the team to beat right now and we’re confident we can bring some performance, but they’re really doing an amazing job.”
Despite the current performance gap, Russell remains optimistic about the team’s execution, saying, “We need to keep on scoring. The last two races, or the three races with the Sprint as well—the result we achieved was the maximum in all three. So that gives me a lot of satisfaction.”
Looking ahead, he added, “And if we do deliver a car that is capable of fighting McLaren, I’ve no doubt we can finish ahead, because we’re doing such a solid job as a team. So yeah, we need to keep on pushing.”
