George Russell didn't hide his frustration after Friday practice at Sepang Circuit. The Mercedes driver believes his W17 is still "off the pace" and requires setup tweaks ahead of qualifying and the race. He finished second in FP1 and dropped to seventh in FP2, 0.383s and 0.492s adrift of pacesetters Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc.
The conditions at Sepang were brutal. The hot and humid Southeast Asian climate sent tyre degradation soaring. "Driving this circuit was really cool, I've never driven here before—it's an iconic place," Russell told F1 TV. "But with these conditions, tyre deg is huge for everybody and the cars are operating in a very different window."
His team-mate and championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, also struggled. The young Italian finished fifth in FP1 and eighth in FP2, far from the dominant form he's shown throughout 2026. It's a signal that Mercedes hasn't fully understood the characteristics of the Malaysian track, which returns to the F1 calendar for the first time since 2017, replacing Bahrain due to ongoing Middle Eastern conflict.
FP1 might be more representative, though, with Russell in second. In FP2, neither Russell nor Antonelli set a soft-tyre lap due to separate errors in the final sector. That means there's still more to come from the heavily-upgraded W17, which features seven new components—mainly focused on the floor, rear suspension, corner, and bodywork.
"I'm feeling the downforce in some of the corners, but with this amount of tyre overheating and degradation, that kind of trumps everything," Russell explained. "We just need to get on top of that overnight. That's more of a setup rather than the upgrade itself." His comments underline that Mercedes' main issue isn't the technical package, but how they manage the tyres in Sepang's extreme conditions.
The fight at the front is intensifying. Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari all look competitive. Verstappen showed impressive raw speed, while McLaren's race pace can't be underestimated. "Verstappen looked very fast and the race pace of McLaren looked very quick, but never say never," Russell added, still eyeing his sixth pole of the season.
With qualifying on Saturday, Mercedes must act fast. Overnight setup changes will be key to whether they can fight at the front again, or fall further behind in a title race that has so far been dominated by Antonelli.
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