‘I don't know how easy that is to fix’ – Palmer picks out ‘huge problem’ for Russell in title fight

Jolyon Palmer believes that George Russell’s lack of pace compared to his team mate Kimi Antonelli is a “huge problem” in the Briton’s title challenge, as Mercedes continue to search for answers to his struggles.

After storming to a dominant win at the season opener in Australia, Russell lost ground to Antonelli due to poor reliability and feeling uncomfortable in the car, which has left him confused at their contrasting results.

Victory in the Austrian Grand Prix and podiums in Barcelona-Catalunya and Great Britain have now brought him to within 25 points of the Italian’s lead in the standings, but the underlying problems still remain – Russell himself admitted that he “didn’t deserve” P2 at Silverstone.

On the latest episode of F1 Nation, former Renault driver Palmer reflected on the Mercedes driver’s rollercoaster season as he said: “When was the last time George was quicker than Kimi in a race? Melbourne. That's a huge problem.

"It’s so generous that George is this close to Kimi, to be honest, given their relative performance.

“There’s one thing that will be sitting uneasily with Kimi: his level of performance is so good, but he only has a 25 point [lead]. George is a driver that's fully capable of finding his feet again and dishing out three wins on the bounce and having that swagger back.”

Team Principal Toto Wolff has repeatedly echoed Palmer’s sentiment that Russell won’t give up on the title fight easily, but he recently conceded that he’s having a “difficult time gelling with the car” whilst Antonelli found his rhythm almost immediately.

The teenager’s five-race winning streak was only brought to an end when a mechanical issue forced his retirement in Barcelona, and further problems have so far prevented him from making a return to the top step.

Although Mercedes’ reliability issues have taken points away from both drivers, Palmer explained why Antonelli is better placed to recover more quickly than Russell and maximise every weekend.

“Speaking to the guys at Mercedes, they were saying it feels like Kimi is able to drive it more on the limit of grip than George,” he said. “George is not able to take it to that level, basically 100% of the car. They were almost saying he’s under-driving it slightly.

“Kimi is so in tune with what the car is doing. He's got some feeling inside him, basically your innate skill to feel like the car. And he's able to do that more consistently. If you look through the data a lot of the time you see that first lap on a new tyre [in Qualifying], Kimi is able to execute the lap.

“Second lap on the tyre, George gets much closer. Kimi is taking it a little bit more risk when there's a bit more grip around taking more out of the tyre. It's a feeling that George is getting and I don't know how easy that is to fix.”

The hurdles facing Russell were just one of the talking points that emerged from the eventful British Grand Prix weekend, with Palmer joining host Tom Clarkson and commentator Alex Jacques to delve into all of them on F1 Nation.

To hear the full episode, hit go on the audio player above or click here to listen to the latest episode on your preferred podcasting platform.

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