{"id":120263,"date":"2025-09-07T06:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T06:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/120263\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T06:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T06:50:08","slug":"mercedes-radio-confusion-over-russells-tyre-choice-explained-%c2%b7-racefans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/120263\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes’ radio confusion over Russell’s tyre choice explained \u00b7 RaceFans"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Russell<\/a> used a set of medium compound tyres to set the fastest time in the first stage of qualifying.<\/p>\n

He agreed with his team to save the set for later use, but was surprised when they put him on soft tyres for his final run in Q3. He was clearly unhappy after finishing the session in sixth place.<\/p>\n

Afterwards Russell said he should have started higher on the grid. \u201cIt was looking pretty good at one point,\u201d he told the official Formula 1 channel. \u201cObviously I was quickest in Q1, I was pretty happy on those mediums.<\/p>\n

\u201cQ2 wasn\u2019t too bad either, but we just got slower as the session progressed, so that was a real shame. We definitely under-performed in Q3.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell said he told the team after Q1 he wanted to use the mediums again. He asked his race engineer Marcus Dudley: \u201cDo you want to save this set?\u201d Dudley replied: \u201cYeah affirm.\u201d<\/p>\n

After getting through Q2 on softs, Russell used softs again for his first run in Q3. That left him fifth-quickest, 0.234 seconds off Max Verstappen\u2019s<\/a> provisional pole position time.<\/p>\n

On his way back into the pits Russell checked with the team if they wanted to stick with the plan, though again he did not explicitly refer to using the medium tyres. \u201cYeah, affirm, we think we stick on plan,\u201d replied Dudley.<\/p>\n

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However the pair appeared to misunderstand each other. As Russell began to drive out of the garage to begin his final run and saw he had another set of softs on his car he asked: \u201cwe\u2019ve got the softs on, is that right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAffirm,\u201d Dudley answered. \u201cThought I said I wanted the mediums?\u201d said Russell.<\/p>\n

With no time left to change his tyres, the pair did not discuss the compound choice further on the radio. Russell failed to improve on his final lap and fell to sixth place, which will become fifth after Lewis Hamilton\u2019s<\/a> penalty.<\/p>\n

He drove back to the pits without saying anything. After pulling to a stop he sat for a short while, then said only \u201ctalk later\u201d before climbing out.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously there was a bit of miscommunication with the tyre choice,\u201d he said afterwards. \u201cP5 starting tomorrow, it\u2019s not amazing but hopefully we can fight from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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2025 Italian Grand Prix
\nBrowse all 2025 Italian Grand Prix articles<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell used a set of medium compound tyres to set the fastest time in the first stage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[53036,1687,372,6537,9307,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-120263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-2025-italian-grand-prix","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}