George Russell ended Friday in Monza satisfied with Mercedes’ performance but pointed to Ferrari as the main benchmark for the rest of the Italian GP weekend in Formula 1. The Briton assessed that the team showed good pace both in fast laps and race simulations.
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Mercedes managed to make progress in car setup after the first activities and arrived at TL2 with some changes that, according to Russell, produced positive effects, resulting in his P1 in the second session. Despite the encouraging scenario, the driver stressed that there is still work to be done before qualifying.
“It was a pretty strong Friday for us. We did a lot of work and seemed to have a reasonable pace both in a lap and in race pace,” Russell said. He also highlighted the strength of the rivals: “Ferrari looked very competitive and still seems to be the team to beat,” adding that McLaren and Red Bull Racing should also be in the fight.
Kimi Antonelli had a different schedule. Since he will start at the back of the grid due to a power unit change, Mercedes focused its efforts on race pace, gathering data to help him recover positions during the race. The Italian also took advantage of the ‘long runs’ to gain experience in traffic situations, something he considers important for the race.
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“We didn’t seem to be very far off in terms of competitiveness. We will need to be strong to move forward again towards the front of the pack, and we will have to make many overtakes on Sunday,” Antonelli explained.
Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ track engineering director, also gave a positive assessment of the start of the weekend, although he avoided premature conclusions. According to him, the track grip surprised and led the team to reduce the wing level on Russell’s car in TL2, still allowing a comparison between the two cars. Shovlin said that analyzing the data overnight will be important, as all the teams in the fight showed moments of strong performance.
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