Formula 1’s Australian Grand Prix: Russell and Antonelli’s Performance Analysis

George Russell, the British racer, felt confident with his Mercedes W16 on the harder compounds during practice for the Australian Grand Prix. However, he thought the car was struggling to extract maximum performance from the soft tires during qualifying simulations.

Russell’s Performance in FP2

Despite placing 10th overall in the FP2 timesheets, Russell demonstrated promising race pace during the end-of-session long runs. He felt more comfortable with the C3 and C4 tires provided by Pirelli at Albert Park.

Russell was 0.843s behind Charles Leclerc’s fastest lap from FP2, lagging behind the Racing Bulls duo and Lance Stroll. The W16 seemed to struggle on the C5 tire.

Antonelli’s Performance in FP2

Rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli ended up 16th fastest in the FP2 order, with a few wide moments on his fastest lap. He attributed these issues to Mercedes having difficulty finding the optimal window with the C5 compound.

Antonelli admitted that his own inexperience with the C5 tire was causing him trouble in getting the right temperatures into the Pirellis before attempting his flying laps. However, he remained optimistic about his first F1 practice session as a fully-fledged Mercedes driver.

Antonelli considered it a positive day overall, despite needing to improve on single-lap performance and finding the right window for the tires. He felt more confident with each passing lap and was encouraged by the long run performance during the session.

Both drivers are looking forward to making improvements overnight ahead of the qualifying sessions. Antonelli, in particular, is eager to learn more about the C5 compound and improve his warm-up techniques for better tire management.