George Russell blames Kimi Antonelli setup for his F1 slump | F1 | Sport

George Russell blamed his recent slump on the fact he had “copy-pasted” Kimi Antonelli‘s car setups. The Brit began the season with a win to cement his status as title favourite, but has slipped to 68 points behing his junior team-mate having endured a difficult run of later, while the Italian teenager has won five Grands Prix in a row.

But Russell is well-placed to get back to winning ways in Barcelona on Sunday, having convincingly out-qualified his Mercedes partner. He took pole position with a lap more than three-tenths of a second quicker than Antonelli’s best effort, while he also has the added protection of Lewis Hamilton splitting them on the starting grid.

Russell declared after the session that he feels “like my old self again” and, when explaining how he had changed his approach, said he had been led down the wrong path by trying to follow Antonelli’s car setup direction. “These cars are so complicated, the tyres are complicated, the power units are complicated, and it’s challenging to get on top of things,” he said.

“You’re trying to constantly improve and I think that doing some copy-pasting probably really put me on the back foot. This weekend, I’ve just gone in my own direction and that’s what I’ve done in the past for the last few years, and really glad to see it paying off.”

In Monaco last weekend, Russell declared himself “bamboozled” as to why he was struggling in the car when things had come to him so much easier in the early weeks of the season. It seems he has figured out the answers after declaring in Barcelona on Saturday: “It just feels back to what I felt at the start of the year during winter testing in Barcelona here, Bahrain testing, Melbourne, China. I felt really comfortable in the car, really happy.

“Miami was the first weekend where everything felt pretty challenging and that’s where I think, I can accept, and with my direct group of engineers we can accept, we probably made some wrong decisions in these last three races. More than anything, more than this pole position, I’m just glad to feel myself again, feel at one with the car again, as I have done for the last few years.”

Antonelli was off Russell’s pace not only in qualifying but also second and third practice. The fact he missed the first hour of running due to Mercedes giving one of their mandated rookie FP1 sessions to reserve driver Frederik Vesti undoubtedly was a factor in that and, unlike Russell, he is not feeling so comfortable behind the wheel.

The 19-year-old said: “It’s been a little bit of a difficult weekend so far, for me. I never really had the feeling with the car. But the long run was strong yesterday and that’s definitely a positive. But today, I’ve been lacking a little bit.”

Asked what he might be able to do about it in Sunday’s Grand Prix, he replied: “We’ll try to get a good start and to make the best use of the tow.”