Russell's Race pace
While I understand that qualifying pace and race pace are two different disciplines, Russell's terrible race pace compared to his really good qualifying pace always amazes me.
If you compare Russell with Norris and Leclerc—given they are of a similar age and drive for top teams—you realize that while Norris and Leclerc are strong in both areas, they are significantly better in one (Leclerc in qualifying and Norris in race pace). With Russell, however, he is easily top-three in qualifying, but at the same time, he has the second-worst race pace among top-team drivers.
The problem for Russell is that in the ground-effect era, qualifying pace was valued more than race pace. Taking last year into consideration, it was nearly impossible to overtake your teammate under the same conditions, so his race pace deficit was largely masked. This year, the situation is different: the qualifying margin between teammates has shrunk, and a qualifying lap can easily be compromised by poor energy deployment. Moreover, race pace is now far more critical because, in almost every race this year (excluding Hungary and Monaco), you can overtake your teammate if you are faster. Consequently, his race pace issues have become much more exposed. What surprises me even more is that across all races this year, Antonelli has held the average race pace advantage, even in Australia.
Another problem is that true race pace usually starts to develop in a driver’s second year and continues to improve until they reach their prime. This means we haven't even seen Antonelli's full race pace yet, suggesting the gap will only get bigger next year.
In the end, what is the reason for Russell's poor race pace, and how can he have such good qualifying pace alongside bad race pace? Ps I'm not talking about his race pace problem this year only I'm talking overall from his Williams days
