Russell admits Mercedes is 'off the pace' after difficult Friday practice at Sepang

George Russell conceded that Mercedes has work to do after a difficult opening day at the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang on Friday, with the Briton finishing second and seventh in the two practice sessions — 0.383 seconds and 0.492 seconds off pacesetters Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc respectively.

Championship leader Kimi Antonelli had an even tougher Friday, the Italian taking fifth and eighth in the two outings as the dominant force of the 2026 season struggled to find pace in the hot and humid conditions at Sepang.

Russell was candid in his assessment, telling F1 TV: “I think as a team we just haven’t got the car quite where we need it to be and we need to make some set-up adjustments as we’re a bit off the pace.”

The session was complicated by the extreme Southeast Asian climate, with high temperatures generating significant tyre degradation across the field. Neither Mercedes driver set a soft-tyre lap in the second practice session after both made separate errors in the final sector, meaning FP1 may be the more representative indicator of the team’s true pace.

Mercedes arrived at Sepang with a heavily upgraded W17 featuring seven updated components, primarily focused on the car floor, rear suspension, corner and bodywork. Russell acknowledged feeling the benefit of the additional downforce in certain corners, but said tyre management was overriding everything else.

“With this amount of tyre overheating and tyre degradation that kind of trumps everything,” he said. “So we just need to get on top of that overnight. That’s more of a set-up rather than the upgrade itself and go from there.”

The Malaysian Grand Prix marks Formula 1’s return to Sepang for the first time since 2017, with the circuit stepping in to host a round that would ordinarily have been held in Bahrain, which is unable to stage the event due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Russell faces a genuine fight for a sixth pole position of the 2026 season, with Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari all showing strong form on Friday. “Verstappen looked very fast and the race pace of McLaren looked very quick, but never say never,” he added.