📷 by Anna

george russell speaks to journalists after qualifying, china - april 20, 2024 📷 michael potts / getty

george russell is interviewed after qualifying, china - april 20, 2024 (transcript under the cut)

George: "It was a little bit unfortunate in Q2, with the red flag of Carlos. I got a really strong lap on underway. Up to the last corner I think I was five-tenths up. I think I was on course for P3, which would have meant I'd have saved a set of tires, two sets in Q3, and that may have changed things. My lap in Q3 was okay. It wasn't my best lap, but it's just always really close between Fernando, the Ferraris, the McLarens, and you nail it, you'd be in P3. You're just off the pace a little bit and you're P5 to P8, and we've found ourself just on the bottom end of that for the last couple of races. But tomorrow I think will be a different story. I think anything can happen, all to play for against those five cars, and we'll do our best to move forward." Interviewer: "Yeah. And Lewis reckoned he took the wrong turn with his set-up, took a different direction. He's still in an experimental phase, I guess, but are you confident with the pathway you've taken? Sounds like you are." George: "Yeah, I mean we weren't too dissimilar, to be honest. We both went in a similar direction. Obviously always small differences between the cars, but we still need to learn as much as we can, and when you arrive at a sprint race you have no practice, no time to test. And if we were to have maximized everything this weekend maybe would have been P3 or 4 on the grid, but we're not here to fight for P3 or 4 or 5. We wanna fight for victories and we wanna fight for championships, and we have a lot of work to do before we find ourselves in that position, and sometimes we may need to sacrifice a race or two, try some bolder things, to get a better and greater understanding. As difificult as it is in the moment, it's what's necessary for the long run." Interviewer: "Just very briefly, okay with the format?" George: "Yeah, I enjoyed it, to be honest. I think the only thing I'd probably like to see change is maybe… The tire allocation for practice is really difficult. I think if you're the quickest car on the grid it's quite easy to do a couple of sets of tires in practice. If you're the slowest cars on the grid, again, you can use more tires. If you find yourself in the middle, like ourselves, McLaren, Aston, do you save a set in practice? Do you put a set on the car? You use a new set in the sprint race. So that'd be nice, if it was a little bit more consistent for everybody."

lewis hamilton and george russell during the drivers parade, china - april 21, 2024 📷 edmund so / getty

george russell and lewis hamilton during the drivers parade, china - april 21, 2024 📷 lintao zhang / getty

lewis hamilton speaks to journalists after the race, china - april 21, 2024 📷 sam bloxham / motorsport images

lewis hamilton on the pit lane on race day, china - april 21, 2024 📷 getty

lewis hamilton on the pit lane on qualifying day, china - april 20, 2024 📷 michael potts / getty

george russell during the drivers parade, china - april 21, 2024 📷 edmund so / getty

george russell in the paddock on race day, china - april 21, 2024 📷 getty

george russell during the drivers parade, china - april 21, 2024 📷 mark thompson / getty

george russell is interviewed after qualifying, china - april 20, 2024

george russell speaks to journalists after the race, china - april 21, 2024 📷 sam bloxham / motorsport images

george russell attends a tennis match in monaco - april 13, 2024 📷 maxppp / alamy

george russell attends a tennis match in monaco - april 13, 2024 📷 jean catuffe / getty

Schneider, Ollie and Flake, McCarran International Airport, Nevada, USA, 03-07-2017 © Mina Bakker