George Russell has revealed he has spoken to fellow F1 drivers regarding an area of the new F1 cars that received some attention in the build-up to the year.
As the 2025 season drew to a close, teams began to experiment on the simulator with the 2026 cars that were being built under a fresh set of technical regulations.
It soon emerged that drivers would likely have to downshift on a long straight to recover engine revs when the energy deployment ran out, sparking concern from some drivers.
The cars took to the track for the first time last week in Barcelona at a shakedown event.
Russell, who set the most laps of any driver with 365, insisted he had nothing negative to report regarding the car's behaviour.
“It’s finally nice to have no porpoising, to be honest,” Russell told media including RacingNews365. “My back is having an easier time of things.
“There hasn't been anything as yet that has surprised us in a negative way.”
Russell confirmed that he was having to downshift on the straights, but insisted it did not feel abnormal to do so.
He added that he talked about the matter with other drivers and claimed they shared his point of view.
“From the power unit side, there was obviously lots of chat around potentially having a downshift in the straights in some circumstances,” he said.
“That will probably continue to be the case - but it doesn't feel that abnormal, to be honest.
“The way I would describe it is like if you're driving your car up a hill, you're still going flat out, but you're losing a bit of speed.
“You may just downshift to give you a bit of extra revs to get up that hill. That's how it sometimes feels when the engine is harvesting and you’re regenerating the battery.
“So there are occasions that you can downshift at the end of the straight even while you're flat out.
“It felt more bizarre in the simulator than it did in reality, to be honest. I spoke with a few other drivers, and they actually commented the same.
“So that was quite intuitive.”
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes and Nick Golding, as they look back on last week's five-day F1 test in Barcelona. McLaren's upgrade strategy is discussed, as is Aston Martin grabbing much attention with its striking AMR26.
Rather watch the podcast? Then click here!
Most read
In this article
Join the conversation!