Russell flags McLaren's hot-weather pace as 'real threat' ahead of Austrian GP

George Russell has singled out McLaren as a ‘real threat’ to Mercedes at the Austrian Grand Prix after Friday practice at the Red Bull Ring revealed the papaya team’s strong race pace in sweltering conditions.

Kimi Antonelli led the way for Mercedes in both FP1 and FP2, finishing 0.237 seconds clear of Oscar Piastri in the second session, with Lando Norris a further tenth back after losing FP1 running to a hydraulic leak. Russell himself could only manage sixth in FP2 following a mistake on his quickest lap — something he said was “nothing to be concerned about” — but McLaren’s form in race trim was a different matter.

“FP1 was a very strong session for us both,” Russell said. “And then straight out of the blocks in FP2, McLaren looked flying, to be honest. Their race pace, their single lap pace looks pretty decent. The biggest concern for us is seeing the pace in McLaren and Ferrari there as well. FP1 was a bit of a breeze, but FP2 has been challenging.”

Russell pointed to a pattern of McLaren raising their game at the hottest rounds of the season. “There’s a real trend of these hot races that they’re strong. We saw it last year. We’ve seen it for years now. Miami was the first real hot race, and they arguably could have won. In Barcelona, Lando had a similar pace to ourselves and Lewis. And then here, they look really strong again.”

He added that McLaren’s opening lap in FP2 was “a real surprise”, and that Norris’s race pace in particular “looked a bit better than us”.

Piastri was more measured about McLaren’s prospects, suggesting Mercedes remained the benchmark. “I don’t know if we’re in the mix with Mercedes,” the Australian said. “We seem to be kind of best of the rest after them. But I think Kimi and Mercedes always find a lot of pace from Friday to Saturday, so I’m expecting them to be very, very quick tomorrow.”

McLaren technical director Neil Houldey was notably relaxed when Russell’s comments were relayed to him, though he stopped short of making bold predictions, with Ferrari and a heavily upgraded Red Bull also expected to feature in the mix over the weekend.