Russell makes light of McLaren’s team orders in ‘strange’ F1 2025 season
George Russell has made light of McLaren's team orders
Asked if Monza was “tough”, George Russell jokingly deflected the question onto McLaren’s team orders rather than his own Italian Grand Prix.
Formula 1 raced at Monza for round 16 of the championship, where reigning World Champion Max Verstappen claimed his first grand prix win since Imola, and McLaren made headlines with its use of team orders. As for Russell, he was fifth. McLaren can be backed among popular F1 betting odds and tips.
George Russell: F1 2025 ‘a strange season”
Russell spent much of the Italian Grand Prix in the middle of a Ferrari sandwich as Charles Leclerc ran ahead of him, while his former Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton was sixth on the track.
The headlines, though, were being made by the drivers ahead.
Verstappen put in one of his best performances of the season as he claimed a surprise pole position before going on to win the grand prix by almost 20 seconds ahead of the McLaren teammates.
As for the Woking team, it courted controversy with team orders late in the race when Oscar Piastri was told to give second place back to Lando Norris after a tardy pit stop for the Briton saw him rejoin the action behind his Australian teammate.
Russell couldn’t resist a little joke at McLaren’s expense.
Asked by DAZN if it was “tough”, Russell replied with a chuckle: “Oh, you mean my race? I thought you meant the swap between Norris and Piastri.”
Joking aside, McLaren’s controversial use of team orders wasn’t the weirdest part of the grand prix for Russell, it was Verstappen’s winning margin.
In the midst of a season in which Red Bull has struggled for pace with even podiums hard to come by, Verstappen was in a league of his own around the Monza circuit as he clinched the win by almost 20 seconds ahead of Norris.
Russell says it is difficult to understand.
F1 2025: Key information
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? The results of the F1 2025 championship
“It’s a strange season,” he said.
“I don’t understand how Verstappen can be 50 seconds behind in Bahrain and Budapest and then win with such a margin here or in Imola. It’s very difficult to comprehend.
“The sport right now is very tight. We are usually fighting with Ferrari, but we finished 12 seconds behind Norris so it’s a competitive race, but Max had an incredible race.”
So incredible it had Russell’s team principal Wolff taking a hard look at his own drivers’ performances at the Italian Grand Prix.
“One driver made everyone else look silly,” Wolff told PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher and other publications at Monza. “They really need to ask themselves what he’s doing differently.”
Although both Mercedes drivers scored points with Kimi Antonelli crossing the line in ninth place, Wolff was not happy with the performance.
“Overall, we weren’t competitive over the weekend,” he said. “A fifth and a ninth place are absolutely not satisfactory.
“I don’t think, with our current setup, we have a car that we can consistently drive onto the podium.
“But Kimi made too many mistakes. He simply needs to put together a solid weekend. Then he’ll be racing on equal terms with Leclerc and George.
“And with George, things also weren’t completely smooth.”
For one, explained Russell, he just couldn’t overtake Leclerc despite having better pace in the opening stint.
“P5 is the maximum we could achieve,” he said. “I’m not over the moon but it’s where the car belongs.
“It’s a shame to lose points to Ferrari but that’s where we are performance-wise.
“We had our smallest rear wing but Ferrari brought an even smaller one. Our car was faster in the first stint, but if you can’t overtake that’s how it is. I think P5 is the fair result.”
Mercedes dropped points to Ferrari in the race to finish runner-up in the Constructors’ Championship and trail the Italian team by 20 points with eight races remaining.
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