"I’m not expecting it to be an easy day" - George Russell after a disappointing Friday at the 2023 F1 Monaco GP

George Russell did not expect the 2023 Monaco GP qualifying to be smooth sailing for the Mercedes. Speaking after the practice sessions on Friday, the Briton believed their team needed to work on their qualifying pace, which is an area they struggle in at the moment.

On the changes they’ve made to their car between FP1 and FP2, George Russell explained:

"Definitely. There are a lot of changes. Things we would’ve done on the previous iteration of the car as well. As I said, there’s not anything at all you need to do to the updates. We’ll work and see and try and get more out of the tyres. We know that the base performance of the car is good. And we normally overachieve maybe on a Sunday and underachieve on a Saturday.

"We need to try and flip those over this weekend. It’s that part in a matter of moments and sometimes it’s a bit baked into the car. So I’m not expecting to be an easy day. So we will work hard and see what we can do.”

Asked where they see themselves in both qualifying and race, the Briton replied:

"We hope we have Aston and Ferrari. That’s where we are aiming towards. Obviously, Red Bull are in a bit of a league of their own at the moment, the midfield is tight and we’ve seen a number of times this year that a McLaren or an Alpine or even a Haas jumps ahead of us on a Saturday but they are nowhere on a Sunday.

"Whereas if they do manage to do that this Saturday, they probably will be with us on this Sunday. So we need to work on our qualifying pace for this weekend and reassess the car next week."

Mercedes came to Monaco with new updates to the W14 which included side pods. However, given their struggles with their qualifying performance, George Russell predicted a tricky qualifying and a race.

The Briton qualified eighth behind teammate Lewis Hamilton, who qualified sixth. But with Charles Leclerc’s penalty, Hamilton moves up to fifth on the grid. According to the 25-year-old, they have been outperformed by midfield teams in qualifying before, but they’ve been able to undo that in the race.

Therefore, he insisted that it was imperative that their team focuses on improving their qualifying pace, given the nature of the Monaco circuit. He believes they will be able to assess their car and updates better at the weekend in Barcelona, which is a more straightforward circuit.

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George Russell feels Monaco is not the right track to evaluate Mercedes' updates

George Russell

Given the street circuit characteristics of the Monaco track, George Russell feels it’s not the correct circuit where they can evaluate the progress on their car or their upgrades. But the driver was confident about the changes made to their car between FP1 and FP2.

He revealed there will be more upgrades introduced to the W14 at the Spanish GP weekend which will be a better gauge of their performance.

Asked about the feeling of the car after the updates, George Russell said:

“As we said yesterday, Monaco is such a unique circuit. It is not really the place to be evaluating any updates or changes and we knew that coming into the weekend. So, we’re sort of bringing some of the upgrades next weekend. I’m just focusing on trying to improve around here on this circuit.

"Qualifying is the most important part of the weekend and qualifying is a part of the weekend where we generally struggle. We always do better on a Sunday if we look over the last 18 months. We need to try and figure some stuff out overnight. There’s definitely some positive signs to take from the session, definitely improved from FP1.”

Coming to Monaco, Mercedes brought new Red Bull-style side pods, a new front suspension, and a revised floor. More upgrades to the car are expected the following weekend. However, their qualifying pace in Monaco was still not enough to get them to the front, which was a tight field split by a tenth of a second.