George Russell believes the new soft tyre Formula 1 has introduced for this weekend’s race will play into McLaren’s hands.
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris dominated the last round of the world championship in Miami, where Russell finished 37 seconds behind in third place. The combination of hot track conditions and a soft tyre selection played to their strengths as the team’s car can control the temperature of its tyres better than its rivals.
For this weekend’s race at Imola, Pirelli has selected softer tyres than last year including its new C6 compound, its softest option. It was originally conceived as a new tyre for street circuits such as Monaco, where F1 will race next week.
While this was intended to broaden the strategic options available to teams at a track where overtaking is difficult, Russell suspects the move will play into McLaren’s hands.
“There’s a lot of tyre degradation,” he told the official F1 channel after practice yesterday. “Obviously we’ve got the softest compounds here, first time of the season, so that sort of spices things up a bit.
“But we know McLaren generally seem to extend their advantage in those conditions. I had Oscar in my sights, then I didn’t. So that was a little bit… He sort of passed Max and went off [into the distance].
“So that’s just where we are at the moment as a team, we know our fight is with Max [Verstappen] and the Ferraris.”
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Russell likened Pirelli’s new tyre to the ‘hyper-soft’ compound it briefly introduced, which drivers tended to use in qualifying but much less often in races.
“In the quali run it was pretty good, to be honest,” said Russell. “I remember when Seb [Vettel] did an interview like six years ago in Monaco about using the hyper-soft for the first time. That’s sort of what I’m thinking as well, I think you know what I’m talking about.”
“We know this tyre isn’t really suited to a track like this,” he added. “But it mixes things up a bit, so that’s what we want.”
Other drivers, including Alexander Albon, said they doubt the change of tyre allocation will lead teams to use different strategies in the race.
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