George Russell isn’t buying the idea that McLaren got slammed by the new front wing flex rules. These rules kicked in just before the Spanish Grand Prix weekend. Many thought McLaren would take a big hit from the new limits on front wing flex. But on Friday in Barcelona, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri topped the time sheets in the first and second practice sessions, respectively.
This has Russell thinking McLaren didn’t get hurt as much as people thought. He also shared his own thoughts after grabbing the second-best time in the afternoon session. With a healthy dose of sarcasm, Russell said, “McLaren is way slower now! Yeah, great news.” He wasn’t serious, of course.
Russell’s focus was on his own Mercedes team. “Over one lap, we looked pretty good,” he said. “It was nice to be closer to the front after some tough races.” But when it came to longer runs, Russell wasn’t happy. “Our pace doesn’t look good, and that’s what we wanted to improve. We need to dig into the data and compare ourselves to the competition, but our race pace is definitely a concern.”