George Russell stood in the media pen visibly downbeat and “numb to the disappointment,” as the Mercedes driver worded it.At the Belgian Grand Prix, he had suffered his second retirement of the season — again, it was through no fault of his own.It’s been a theme this year: Matters outside of the Briton’s control dictating his race. The 28-year-old entered the campaign as the bookies’ favorite to win the drivers’ championship, but as teammate Kimi Antonelli has thrived, Russell has struggled.There have been flashes of brilliance as he secured four pole positions and two grands prix victories. But also quite a few issues, like mechanical problems, operational setbacks and a possible performance deficit.The Belgian GP was another example of that.
Russell knew he needed to improve to continue closing the gap to Antonelli, who has been close to flawless this year. The biggest thing? Pace, he revealed Thursday. “It’s so clear in the data, and it can be solved,” Russell said, adding he felt it boiled down to simply “not getting the car in that sweet spot.”“Last year, I felt I had a very high hit rate of how often I could get the full potential for the car, the setup, the tires, with my engineers,” he continued. “And this year, that hit rate is far lower, and that’s what I’m working on to make it more consistent.”It does beg the question: how simple a fix is it?Russell compared it to being asked to draw the Mona Lisa with Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic painting sat next to you.“Do you think you could achieve it straight away? Maybe with practice you will,” he said. “And with these new power units, with these new tires, with these new cars, I’m having to set the car up in a way that has not been suited to my driving. I’m having to drive in a way that I haven’t driven in my whole career, and I’m having to adapt to this.”He may know what he needs to do, but it’s a 50/50 toss-up on whether his driving style will work on any given weekend or if he’ll need to adapt. And if it’s the latter, Russell has to determine how to change his approach and still be quick.“When I’ve performed at my very best, I’ve just been performing subconsciously, not even been thinking about driving,” he said. “And now you’re having to think, trying to make these new techniques become subconscious techniques, and that is the challenge.”George Russell crashed out in Spa on the first lap. (Clive Mason / Getty Images)As the weekend unfolded, Antonelli had the edge on Russell — in every practice session and then in qualifying. The Italian secured pole position and was half a second faster than his teammate, who qualified fourth. What baffled Russell was the difference in straight-line speed.“We saw this from Silverstone,” he said. “We thought we found the problem. We thought it was something with the brakes… it wasn’t the brakes.“Then we thought it was my driving style with the throttle. I convinced myself that it was something in me, the driving style. Now we’re very confident it’s not the driving style, and that there’s a serious issue at play here.”He confirmed Saturday that Mercedes is working to resolve it, but the difference is ranging from two- to six-tenths on the straights, the Englishman said. In the 36 hours leading up to qualifying, he wasn’t focused on car setup or tires but instead the straight-line speed deficit.“With George over the weekend, there was definitely something on the engine that we have identified that he only had less energy to deploy into Turn 18. That was the most visible… That probably accounted for half the gap that, or a little bit more, that he had to Kimi,” Team boss Toto Wolff said Sunday after the race.But matters spiraled, as Russell only lasted just a handful of corners at Spa. He felt he made a solid start, managing to tuck behind Max Verstappen, who was battling Antonelli for the lead at the time. But after the first corner, something shifted, the battery becoming the problem child.The battery didn’t recharge at Turn 1, “for whatever reason,” Russell said. He exited the corner 35 percent down, which led to a problem with the Boost button.“The turbo didn’t sort itself out, so I had no power,” he continued. “I got to the top of Eau Rouge with zero percent on the battery. Quite frankly, it was dangerous. I got swamped by three cars. Shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place. That’s why I’m the most angry.”According to Wolff, Russell wasn’t the only driver with a Mercedes engine impacted by this “lack of energy out of Turn 1,” the team principal claiming it was all of them. He later added, “It was a new issue.”George Russell has fallen to third in the drivers’ standings. (Clive Mason / Getty Images)Russell not only faces a 50-point deficit to Antonelli but has also slipped down to third in the standings, with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton advancing to second. A five-point gap separates the former teammates. With a quick turnaround to Hungary, the final race before summer break, in just a few days, it’s all the more important for Russell to move on and reset.Is that easier to do so when it’s just ‘one more thing’ on a list of bad luck? Russell said he’s “numb to the disappointment now. So when it happens so often, you just get used to it.”When the drivers head to the media pen, it’s often soon after an incident or a race and emotions are heightened. Wolff pointed this out when he was told about Russell saying he felt numb.“I think it’s quite an honor to drive a Mercedes. Sometimes, we let ourselves down,” Wolff continued. “It’s not just the driver, but it’s also us. It’s valuable constructor points that we lose in our fight against Ferrari.“I hope the numb feeling goes away. We will try to help to recreate optimism and positivity.”Fifty points isn’t an insurmountable gap for Russell to overcome. Look at Verstappen, who was 104 points off championship leader Lando Norris after the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August and clawed his way back into the fight.“I understand the frustrations,” Wolff said, “and the team is 100 percent behind him.”Russell not only needs to reset mentally, which he did many times throughout his junior career, but Mercedes also needs to work on the car’s systems and reliability, identifying solutions for the issues that arise. It’s not uncommon for matters like this to pop up in the first year of a new technical regulation set, but two titles hang in the balance.Only 10 of this season’s 22 rounds have been completed.The drivers’ and constructors’ championships are far from over.
