2023-09-22 14:17:18
George Russell of Mercedes F1. He believes the F1 Japanese Grand Prix is on the verge of becoming a three-stopper, with the Suzuka circuit’s “bizarre” surface causing massive tire degradation. George Russell said Friday’s first day of practice was baffling, with so little grip. Russell, who finished the second practice session in fifth place, 0.6 seconds behind pacesetter Max Verstappen, said it had not been a normal run for him.
Russell suggested that the asphalt, including the newly laid sections at Turns 3, 4 and 7, did not behave as expected. “It looks like there’s a lot of tire degradation going on,” Russell said. “Suzuka is really weird.” “Suzuka is one of the best tracks to drive in the world, but this year the pavement was really crumbling and it felt like the cars were sliding on the road.” “All the drivers Pirelli is bringing the hardest compound in its range to Japan, and if degradation is low it will move to one-stop. There was a possibility that it would. Russell currently expects to eventually increase the rubber to two stops, but he believes that more rubber may be needed. “On the new tarmac tracks like Jeddah and Melbourne, there’s definitely more grip,” Russell said. “Without a doubt, when you go to tracks like Jeddah or Melbourne on this new tarmac, you really get a lot of grip,” he said. “Even on the new section in Singapore, it was really fun for the drivers to drive and there wasn’t a lot of tire degradation. “Here, the tire degradation is probably closer to three stops than one stop at the moment. But I think everyone will have two stops on Sunday, so we’ll see how it goes.”Russell wasn’t too down on the performance of the Mercedes car, which appears to be in the middle of the pack behind Red Bull. “Honestly, it was a half-decent day,” Russell said. “Red Bull are back to normal. I don’t think this is a big surprise. To many people, they look very fast. “Second is not far away, I think two tenths of a second, so Ferrari It’s going to be a good battle between the Germans and Lando (Norris). But as we often see in qualifying, cars like Alex (Albon) are also up there.
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