George Russell admitted his concern that Mercedes had “taken an enormous step backwards” after one other tough qualifying session for the crew on the Belgian Grand Prix.
Mercedes has struggled for tempo throughout the Spa-Francorchamps weekend to date, with neither Russell nor Kimi Antonelli reaching the final phase of Sprint Qualifying on Friday, and each struggling to progress by means of the sector in the Sprint itself.
Whereas Russell’s sixth place for Sunday’s Grand Prix might seem a robust end result on paper, the Canadian Grand Prix race winner pointed to the high-quality margins that outlined his session.
“It was for positive, the utmost,” he mentioned. “All of my laps have been robust, nevertheless it’s clear that, as a crew, we’ve taken an enormous step backwards this weekend. We don’t actually know why.
“One tenth slower in Q1, I’d have been nearly out. A tenth slower in Q3 and I’d have been P10. P6, I really feel, is no doubt, the utmost we might have achieved.”
Final 12 months, in a race Russell additionally began from sixth, the Briton took the chequered flag after placing on a spectacular show to make a one-stop technique work.
Though his celebrations have been halted as he was disqualified for his car being underweight, when requested if this offers him hope for this 12 months’s operating, he added: “Yeah.
“I don’t assume it’ll pan out identical to final 12 months, particularly because it’s moist tomorrow. However something can occur. We’ll take these positives, however as a crew, we simply must assess why we had 4 podiums within the first six races and we’ve had one within the final six races.”
Rookie Antonelli has additionally discovered himself enduring a latest run of a nasty type, with a 3rd place in Canada his solely factors rating within the final six races. Certainly, he’s but to attain some extent on European soil.
An error in Dash Qualifying left him behind Saturday’s grid, however the Italian had no such excuse on Qualifying for the Grand Prix, as he set the third slowest time, with solely the 2 Aston Martins behind him.
“It’s only a tough interval,” he conceded. “I simply must get out of this and attempt to enhance for the subsequent one.”
“The arrogance has been lacking. Positively, I struggled to have the identical feeling as yesterday, for instance, and I simply really want to seek out the sunshine on the finish of the tunnel once more.”
