15/03/2025
NEWS STORY
George Russell will line up fourth for tomorrow's season-opening Australian Grand Prix with Kimi Antonelli P16 after suffering floor damage during Q1.
After evaluating yesterday's running, the team made several overnight changes which yielded improvements on single lap performance.
Having cycled through two new sets of the Soft compound, George ended the final hour of practice P2 with Kimi P5. Whilst hotter ambient temperatures arrived for Qualifying, cloud cover kept track temperatures in the low 40°Cs, similar to earlier sessions.
The team opted to run the Medium compound initially in Q1; whilst George found gains on his second lap, Kimi aborted and moved on to the Soft compound. Unfortunately, a kerb strike at turn six on his first push lap on that tyre caused sizeable damage to the bib area of the floor and significantly impacted performance. Despite that, a valiant effort from the young Italian saw him improve on his second push lap but just miss out on advancing out of Q1 by just 0.09s.
George meanwhile progressed through to Q3 and sat P2, less than one tenth from pole after his first run. On his final effort, he was unable to make a significant improvement though and eventually qualified P4.
Rain is forecast for tomorrow's race with the season set to get underway with 58 laps around Albert Park.
George Russell: I'm very happy with how today went. We struggled in the hotter conditions last year, and that was true yesterday. That was a very useful day of learning for us; we went away overnight, and the team worked hard to try and understand why we were lacking on the Soft tyre compared to the Medium and Hard compounds. We found some areas of improvement that were beneficial, and we can hopefully continue pushing in this direction.
Whilst we are still a few tenths behind the McLarens, we're starting P4 for the first race of the season, and that is encouraging. It could have potentially been a little better too as Q3 was tricky for us. I lost three tenths in the last couple of corners on my first push lap and didn't improve significantly on my final effort.
Finally, whilst Kimi was unfortunate to be knocked out in Q1, he has shown great signs of speed this weekend and he'll soon be right up there. Tomorrow is a new day and, with the weather forecast showing rain, it's going to be all to play for. Hopefully, we can be in the mix.
Kimi Antonelli: That was an unfortunate Qualifying session to start the season. As I came through turn six on my first push lap on the Soft tyre, there was some gravel on track and I ran slightly wide. It was not enough to really impact my lap time, but the car hit the exit kerb harder than I expected and I suffered some significant floor damage. I could feel the car bottoming on the straight and costing me a lot of performance. Without the damage, I am sure it would have been a very different story for us.
Starting P16 is of course not ideal. That is particularly true when you look at our pace in FP3 as I think we could have been challenging near the front of the grid. It is what it is though and now we look ahead to tomorrow. The forecast is for rain and that will hopefully present us with some opportunities. I'm looking forward to it and getting my first F1 race under my belt.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO: We were in the mix today and that was encouraging. We showed improved speed in FP3 having made some changes overnight. Whilst we looked like we were in the fight for pole position at moments in Qualifying, the McLarens were very impressive; I think it's fair to say that they had a couple of tenths advantage over us on the optimal lap. Overall, it is a good start to the new season with the W16. It all looks close at the front, and we will see what we can do tomorrow.
Kimi was very unfortunate to suffer floor damage having run over the exit kerb at turn six. He didn't run very wide yet suffered a big hit on the underside of the car and that caused him to lose a significant amount of performance. He put in a strong effort to try and hustle the car through to Q2, but it wasn't quite enough. It is all beneficial for his learning though and he will now have an exciting race trying to come through the pack tomorrow.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: We had a solid start to the day in FP3. We looked to have made improvements to the car overnight and the drivers were happy with the overall balance. It looked like we could be in the mix at the front come Qualifying, although the pack at the front was very tight.
Whilst that did prove to be the case, we were slightly unfortunate not to get the perfect laps together when it mattered in Qualifying. George's session ran to plan, as he progressed through to Q3. His first effort in the final segment put him P2, but he dropped back slightly in the final reckon to P4. With tomorrow's forecast, there is still plenty of opportunity for him to move forward though and fight for the podium.
Kimi was more unfortunate having run over the exit kerb at turn six. That caused floor damage that impacted his performance significantly, both on the straights and in the corners. He did his very best to get the car through to Q2 but, even if he had been able to do so, it's unlikely that we would have been able to make the necessary repairs to get him back out there. We can be encouraged by his progress through the weekend though, and the pace he has shown on both the single lap and the long run. Whilst he's starting out of position, the wet weather may afford him the chance to make good progress up the field.
Check out our Saturday gallery from Albert Park here.