George Russell says Mercedes sp📖ent Friday practice at the Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix trying “radical” set-up ideas with a view to 2025.

The Briton - who has been at the centre of a fe🥂ud with Max Verstappen following last week's Qatar GP - was fourth-fastest in FP1 at Yas Marina on Friday morning, but dropped to 13th in the evening session🅷 in his Mer𒁃cedes.

Ru🐻ssell was heard on his team radio complaining about a lack of grip in 🍒FP2, with the Mercedes driver around a second down on Lando Norris’ session-topping lap.

However, he later explained that Mercedes used Friday as something of a test day 💯to try “radical” ideas with a view to 2025 and expects Saturday to be “a bit more normal”.

“Today w꧒e struggled🍌 a bit but this is only Friday,” he told Sky Sports F1.

“We’re t🐠rying a lot of things in preparation fꦿor next year.

“Obviously this is our last opportunity and we wanted to go, let’s say, a little bit more 🐼radical with some of the set-up options, just t😼o see if there’s anything more we can learn.

“So, hoping tomorrow wil♒l be a bit more of a normal day and go from there.”

Russell praised team-mat🌠e Lewis Hamilton’s form on Friday in Abu Dhabi, with the seven-time world champion telling the media that he feels Mercedes is “in the mix”.

From Russell’s perspective, however, he sees Mercedes as “a long way off🃏” Ferrari and McL✅aren currently.  

“To be honest, I think Lewis did somꦡe great lꦡaps out there and I think still, as a team, we’re a long way off McLaren and Ferrari,” he added.

“McLaren especially🎐 seem to be in a league of their own at the moment.

“But as I said, Lewis did a great job but we’re still four ღtenths behind the McLarens, so that’s bigger than we usually exp🐟ect.

“So, I expect Ferrari to prꦓobably get back in the mix, Max [Verstappen] to probably get back in the mix but I hope we can make some improvements for tomorrow.”