George Russell dampens Mercedes hope despite looming F1 chaos

George Russell has explained how he anticipates the novel two-stop Monaco Grand Prix to shake out, but believes he is "stuck" either way.

Outlining the two competing strategies he predicts will be employed by teams around the streets of the principality, the three-time grand prix winner maintains there will not be "any revelations", as he told Sky Sports F1 after qualifying.

The British driver will start a lowly P14 at the Circuit de Monaco after his Mercedes lost power after hitting a bump in Q2, leaving him with a daunting task in the famed race.

With the round in Monte Carlo obligating each driver to pit at least twice, it is widely expected there will be some unusual pit stop strategies.

His team-mate, Kimi Antonelli, and team principal, Toto Wolff both teased the potential for the Brackley-based squad to try something "crazy", but Russell feels he is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

"Well, for sure, there's going to be some crazy strategies," the 27-year-old told media, including RacingNews365. "But we qualified 14th, we probably should have been in the top five.

"So there are 10 cars between me and where we should have been. And if people are doing crazy things with the strategy, half of those guys will go one way, the other half will go the other way.

"Therefore, we're stuck behind... whichever we decide, we're still stuck behind five drivers."

Going one of two ways

Whilst laying out the options available to teams, Russell also highlighted the one saving grace afforded to him, albeit unrelated to him starting so far down the order. 

"You're going to see one of two things," the Mercedes driver stated. "People pitting on lap one, or people going really long into the race.

"We do have a small advantage with the two hard tyres, but if you can't pass there's not much you can do."

When asked whether he would opt to start on soft or hard Pirellis, Russell refused to be drawn in, claiming the team will decide once it sees what others are doing.