George Russell sounds F1 alarm after Bahrain test: 'The car is not designed to do that'

George Russell has a "quite annoying" problem affecting 2026 F1 cars, using an unusual supermarket analogy to make his point.

Owing to the energy harvesting demands of the new power units, drivers must use lower gears through corners to rev the engines higher and force charge into the batteries for use in deployment. 

This technique makes the rear of the car less stable under braking, but the pros outweigh the cons with the extra reserves of energy it will create. 

However, as the Mercedes driver explained when discussing the technique, the new cars are not "designed" to be driven in such a manner, using a supermarket carpark to help make his point, one he labelled "quite annoying."

"The one challenge that we're facing is using very low gears in the corners," Russell explained to media, including RacingNews365.

"To give an example, here in Bahrain, usually the first corner is a third-gear corner in the previous generation, and now we're having to use first gear to keep the revs high to keep the turbo spinning. 

"It is the one thing which is quite annoying and isn't that intuitive, but for the rest, you can't argue with the amount of power when you get the full 350kw, but it is going to progress a huge amount. 

"Imagine when you drive to the supermarket, and you get to the roundabout, and you put it in third gear to drive around it, but suddenly the person next to you says: 'Put it in first gear.'

"Everything is then revving, and you don't go to the supermarket in first gear if you are driving at a sensible speed, and this is the same thing. 

"The car is designed to go around this corner in third gear, but because of the turbo and boost and all of this, you've got to keep the engine revs very high, which means you have to take first gear.

"The car is not designed to do that, but we're working around it, and it doesn't mean that you get pushed around the corner from the torque.

"Sometimes, it feels like a bit of a handbrake when you are having to go down the gears."