George Russell has rubbished suggestions that McLaren are doing anything untoward with their tyres, the Briton saying rather than level allegations, rivals should give “credit where credit’s due”.

McLaren have found themselves the target of suspicions within the Formula 1 paddock, reportedly spearheaded by Red Bull, having shown superior tyre wear in the last 18 months.

George Russell: On their worst day, they’re still the best

While suspicions that the team could be injecting a small amount of water into their tyres to keep them cool, and therefore improve tyre wear, were leveled at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix, Pirelli found no evidence to support the allegations.

The whispers of the water trick continued in the background before again making headlines in Miami when Zak Brown sat with a ‘tire water’ bottle on the McLaren pit wall amidst a fresh report from Auto Motor und Sport that Red Bull have resorted to thermal imaging cameras.

According to AMuS, Red Bull are using the cameras to capture the temperature of the tyre cooling ducts on the MCL39 when the drivers come in for their pit stops with the focus primarily on the rear tyres as they generally overheat more quickly than the fronts.

The German publication claims Red Bull have noted ‘many blue areas around the brake vents on the McLaren tyres, while all the other cars showed a lot of orange and red’ with the team coming to the conclusion that it is ‘impossible’ to cool the tyres that well with just air alone.

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There, however, has been no official protest from Red Bull even in the wake of McLaren’s fifth Grand Prix win of the season in Miami on Sunday.

That race saw Oscar Piastri lead his team-mate Lando Norris home for a 1-2, the McLaren pairing over half a minute up the road from third-placed Russell.

It begs the question, posed by Sky F1, does he have a chance to fighting the McLarens given they were a ‘long way ahead’.

Russell replied: “I’ve been saying that a lot of season. What we saw from them in the likes of China and Japan, it’s probably their worst case scenario, and what we’re seeing in the hot race of Bahrain and Miami is their best case scenario.

“So on their worst day, they’re still the best. On their best day, of course, they’re the best.

“So, we want to keep on improving. It’s clearly down to tyre temperatures, because they’re just making a step when it’s really hot.

“And I think Max has said it once or twice already as well. It’s like nine teams doing something wrong, it’s only one team that have got it really right. So we’ve got to improve.”

But just because McLaren have got something it right, that doesn’t mean the Woking team is cheating.

“I don’t believe they’re doing anything untoward,” Russell insisted.

“They’ve been this dominant condition for 18 months now, so you’ve got to give them credit where credit’s due, and the rest of us have to improve.

“I think we have ideas ourselves where we can improve in this regard, but that’s a long-term process, and that’s a bit of a bugger. But this is Formula One, when there’s a team dominating, it’s very challenging to catch back up.”

That’s a stance his Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff voiced at the Miami Grand Prix when he told the media, including PlanetF1.com, that McLaren’s key personnel are people of “integrity” and he therefore has “no doubt” that the MCL39 is legal.

“I think that the team around Zak [Brown], Andrea [Stella], Rob Marshall… these are good people with integrity,” he said.

“If in the past, [we] often say: ‘Well, let’s look at whether there’s something borderline’, but I have no doubt that these guys [McLaren] stay within the rules.

“It’s just really good development [with] that car. They’ve understood how to manage the tyre much better than everybody else and, in my opinion, it’s totally legit.”

“Also,” he continued, “from a team management point of view, we should never when somebody is doing a better job than you, we should not look at that and say ‘cheating’, because that’s not the right attitude anyway.

“So we just need to become better, and eventually not get 30 or 35 seconds over 55 laps.”

McLaren lead both championship logs, Piastri 16 points up on Norris in the Drivers’ standings, while McLaren are 105 to the go over Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship.

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