After a difficult race in Hungary, George Russell has once again raised concerns over Mercedes’ reliability, just days after praising the team’s hard work on finding a solution. It has been a tricky first half of the season for the brit, who is now 59 points between teammate and Championship leader Kimi Antonelli.
Russell started the race from P7 on the grid after lacking in pace compared to rivals Ferrari and McLaren, but his car went into anti-stall as the lights went out, dropping him down dramatically to P18 on the first lap.
Russell left frustrated by ongoing reliability issues
Russell was confident heading into the weekend, insisting that Mercedes had ‘positive answers’ for his power unit struggles after a DNF in Belgium. Russell made contact with Lewis Hamilton at Spa-Francorchamps after struggling to get off the line at the start of the race. He blamed the power unit, hitting out at the team over the radio.
Arriving at the Hungaroring on Thursday, Russell said: “We have achieved what we wanted to in the sense of finding there was an issue.”
However, after fighting his way back to P7 in Hungary, he expressed concern over his race start.
↗︎Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the race, he said: "I remain positive because I've already been through so much disappointment with everything that's happened in this first half of the year. There comes a point where you need to pick yourself up and accept that there are many things that are out of your control and that can work against you.
“I'm even a little pleased to know that the pace was strong. The team said it was as good as anyone else on the track, so I think that's the positive side. But it's one thing after another."
Russell aiming to stay positive despite major deficit to Antonelli
Heading into the summer break, Mercedes remain title favourites, but the threat from Ferrari and McLaren is looming, especially if they fail to improve reliability. Kimi Antonelli has also been subject to mechanical issues, retiring from the Spanish Grand Prix earlier this season. However, the teenager is comfortably ahead of teammate Russell in the standings.
Despite this, Russell managed to stay upbeat in post-race interviews, acknowledging that there is work to be done within his control if he wants to catch Antonelli and Hamilton.
He said: "There are things that are within my control and that I need to improve, and I will continue working on them. Of course, I'm not happy with how things turned out, but I will continue to maintain a positive attitude and keep pushing."
It was a dominant race win for Lando Norris, with both McLaren drivers showing strong pace up until ↗︎Oscar Piastri’s DNF. The Mercedes customer team brought a solid upgrade package to the Hungaroring, and could be a major threat to the top teams in the development race, making Russell’s reliability concerns an even bigger worry for Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship.
With the summer break kicking off ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix next month, Mercedes will need to work hard to ensure stability across the rest of the season, lest they lose their first clear shot of a title since 2021.
