© Sam Bloxham for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix ltd.
George Russell attended the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix Thursday Drivers’ Press Conference. Here is the full transcript!
Q: George, coming to you now. A lot of positive comments coming out of Mercedes after the race on Sunday at Imola. Where is the car better after this latest raft of upgrades?
George RUSSELL: Yeah, the car is definitely more balanced through the lap now. We were struggling a lot at the start of the year, balancing the high- to low-speed corners. And I think we have made progress. when you look at the gap to Red Bull, when you look at the gap to the rest of the midfield, we have moved forward. But I do think it’s fair to say Ferrari and McLaren have moved forward at the same rate. So we need to keep on working, bringing those upgrades to the car. And the whole team are working flat out right now to bring those upgrades as quick as possible.
Q: You finished fifth here for the last two years. Do you have the performance to finish higher than that on merit?
GR: I think as the guys have been saying, Monaco is so challenging. There are so many disruptions throughout the whole weekend and you just need to find that sweet spot. The track’s evolving so much, it’s getting faster and faster, often up to three seconds quicker in qualifying than it is in a practice one. So even if you have a good Friday, you need to be ready to adapt moving into Saturday. And, you know, we saw today. I was sort of in the engineering meeting and it was bright blue sunshine and I came out and it was pouring down with rain. So that could add some spice to things.
Q: But do you think the low-speed performance of the car will help you?
GR: I think we’ve known all season that we struggle to balance high- to low-speed. We can either get it quite competitive in low-speed and we struggle at high speed or vice versa. So we are hoping that with relatively consistent corner speeds at this circuit, that we should be slightly more competitive.
If you like SilverArrows.Net, consider supporting us by buying us a coffee!
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Albert Fabrega – ESPN LATAM) Do you think that deleting the quickest lap time of a driver causing a yellow or red flag during qualifying, it could be a good system for a particular track like this one, for example?
Esteban OCON: I think, if I’m correct, that’s being looked at by the FIA. I think recently we’ve discussed that in some drivers’ meetings, that a situation where a driver would cause a red flag would be monitored. So I think that should be something sensible to be doing because we’ve seen in the past drivers causing issues and the others not being able to do a lap. Yeah, that should be something that the FA monitors, I think.
GR: Yeah, I agree with Esteban. We obviously have laps deleted all the time in qualifying for track limits. I think if you were to cause a yellow flag or red flag, you should probably have your best lap deleted. Yeah, nothing more to say about that.
Q: (Roldan Rodriguez –DAZN, Spain) A question to George. Last race, your team-mate said that he would prefer Kimi Antonelli in Mercedes-Benz next year. I would like to know your opinion. Who is in pole for next year in Mercedes?
GR: Yeah, I think, you know, Kimi is a fantastic driver, obviously racing in Formula 2 this year, but he’s no doubt going to be a Formula 1 driver in the future and he’s a fellow junior driver as well, coming through the ranks, as I did with the team. So I think it makes for a great opportunity for Mercedes building into the future. But as I said before, I’d welcome anybody as my team-mate. I feel like I’ve got a pretty good team-mate right now as it is. So yeah, welcome anybody.
Q: (Stuart Codling – GP Racing) George, first of all, apologies for not asking about the current race weekend, monthly magazines swim in a different stream of the space/time continuum. Looking ahead to the British Grand Prix, how confident are you in the trajectory of development at Mercedes enabling you to do a job in front of your home crowd.
GR: Always really excited to go to Silverstone, but I think we are on a really good trajectory at the moment. We are bringing upgrades really quickly to the car, which we are confident will bring performance. Historically, we have always gone well around Silverstone as well and I think now we are entering the European season things are a little bit more consistent, less Sprint races as well. We know from the past we are really good at building throughout the season so we are hoping by Silverstone we are going to be in that fight with the guys in front of us.
Q: George, we’ll come to you in a second. Max, just carry on. You’ve spoken about Le Mans in the past. You’d like to do it, wouldn’t you?
GR: Yeah, I think definitely after my Formula 1 career, I would love to race in Le Mans and maybe even do it with some guys who are in F1 at the moment, I think it would be quite cool…
Q: Who would be your team-mates from the current grid?
GR: Well, Alex and I spoke like a couple of years ago about doing like a GT race or something together, but I don’t know who you’d want. But like Max said, I think, how things are in Le Mans at the moment, such a great championship, but iit is quite unfair to the guys of our weight. We’re all sort of 80 kilos with our kit and our helmets. And you know, Yuki would have six tenths on us before we even start. So, but as I said, I think it’s a very special race. I think we’re all racers.
EO: Six tenths a lap!?
GR: Well, 20 kilos, 20 kilos. I think 20 kilos, six tenths a lap?
Yuki TSUNODA: I think I’ve found my dream job!
GR: Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, I think, as I said, we’re all racers and, you know, we love racing in Formula 1 and that takes all of our effort. But in the future, for sure, we want to explore some of these awesome races.
Q: (Rodrigo França – Car Magazine, Brazil) Question to all. We’re here in the same weekend of the 24th Film Festival of Cannes, and there’s a lot of cinema and movie stars here. So my question is, what’s your favourite movie of all time, and why?
GR: I always remember watching James Bond Casino Royale when I was a kid, so that was always my number one.
Charles LECLERC: Hangover is a cool one, but actually Harry Potter was probably my favourite growing up, and it remains one of my favorite movies. Oh yeah, big fan, huge fan! What? Yeah, I knew the lines. When I was 10 years old, I knew the lines of the movie. Yeah, of course. Everybody was telling me I was looking like Harry Potter as well.
Alex ALBON: I was about to say, with glasses, you would look like Harry Potter.
GR: I have a video, one of the very first videos I have on my phone is of Charles, 2012, with the long hair. I don’t know if you remember, it was in… Ortona? Is it the Italian WSK?
CL: Yeah, but I’m a bit worried about what you’re going to say next.
GR: You put the broomstick between your legs and you’re doing the sort of the wizard…
Max VERSTAPPEN: You’re not making it any better!
CL: Keep that video for yourself!
MV: I would like to see that one.
Q: (Sam Johnston, Sky Sports) A question for George. There was quite a lot of confidence coming from Toto and James in Imola about your 2026 engine. I was just interested to see how much you know about that and how much confidence that gives you for 2026, albeit far off?
GR: Yeah I mean ordinarily 2026 seems like a long time away but in the world of Formula 1 it’s going to be here tomorrow and the team are feeling really confident for this era. I think you know the experience of the team have had, the success in 2014 with the new powertrain, and then obviously the time in Formula E, the work that was done with the Hypercar. There are a lot of individuals within HPP who have got so much experience with this future technology. So I think that leaves us in a really great place to have a great engine. And the work Petronas are doing on the fuel as well is looking really strong. So on the engine side, I think we’re feeling very confident for that era.
Source: FIA.com
