George Russell points to 'stopwatch' concern over Mercedes F1 upgrade

George Russell has weighed in on the performance of the Mercedes upgrade in Singapore, admitting the “stopwatch has not been great” for the specification.

Russell is running the older package at the Marina Bay Circuit, while team-mate Kimi Antonelli is equipped with the newer version that was introduced in Malaysia last time out.

However, it was Russell who was the faster Mercedes on Friday during sprint qualifying, ending the session on the front row on the grid.

Antonelli could only muster seventh place and acknowledged that he struggled to extract performance from the car.

But Russell is confident that the new spec car has potential waiting to be unlocked, despite its unimpressive delivery thus far.

“Well, we can definitely confirm the old one is not bad,” Russell said. “Let's see what tomorrow brings with Kimi on the upgrade as a team. 

“There's still nothing telling us that it isn't working, but it's all driven by the stopwatch, and the stopwatch has not been great for the upgrade yet. 

“Let's see, maybe tomorrow is a different day.”

[Article continues below]

Russell satisifed with sprint qualifying display

While Russell will start Saturday's sprint race from the second row of the grid behind Max Verstappen, he will be demoted for Sunday's grand prix due to a new power unit.

It will offer another significant blow to his F1 title hopes, which are already dangling by a thread.

However, the Briton is taking comfort in the strong pace he had on display throughout Friday in Singapore.

“We've seemed competitive all day, to be honest,” he said.

“From the first laps in FP1, we obviously topped the time sheets there. 

“We knew Max was fast, and he went on a slightly different strategy to us in SQ3, just doing the one lap. 

“Who knows what was best, but pretty satisfied with the P2.”