{"id":39644,"date":"2026-07-18T13:34:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T17:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=39644"},"modified":"2026-07-18T14:08:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T18:08:53","slug":"russell-serious-issue-costing-me-4-tenths-on-the-straights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2026\/07\/18\/russell-serious-issue-costing-me-4-tenths-on-the-straights\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell: “Serious issue” costing me 4 tenths on the straights"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Russell<\/a> could only manage third place in qualifying for the Belgian GP, even with a 10-place grid penalty for Lando Norris handing the Mercedes driver a free position.<\/p>\n

Russell’s 2026 campaign has been characterised by difficulties with his W17. Despite being the more experienced Mercedes driver, it is his 19-year-old teammate Kimi Antonelli that has been leading the pack.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Russell believes car problem responsible for lack of pace<\/h2>\n

This weekend in Belgium has been another complicated one for Russell, from the first laps in Free Practice to the end of Q3.<\/p>\n

Antonelli has consistently been the fastest Mercedes, often enjoying an advantage of several tenths over the #63 car.<\/p>\n

At surface value, this is a significant deficit. Whilst misfortune in Silverstone denied Antonelli a likely victory and opportunity to extend his points lead over Russell, the 19-year-old will be optimistic about strengthening his Championship advantage if he maintains his pace advantage over Russell.<\/p>\n

However, George Russell does not think his deficit to Antonelli can be solely attributed to driver performance.<\/p>\n

Speaking post-qualifying<\/a> in Belgium, the 28-year-old spoke about some of his frustrations behind the scenes:<\/p>\n

“It could be worse, but it could be much better. Yesterday I was \u200blosing 8 tenths on the straights, and today I am losing 4 tenths. It is a step \u200bin the right direction.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We saw this at Silverstone, and we thought we had discovered the problem. We thought it was the brakes, it wasn\u2019t.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Then we thought it was my driving style with the throttle, and I convinced myself \u200bthat it was something in me. But now we are very confident it isn\u2019t my driving \u200bstyle.<\/em><\/p>\n

“There is a serious issue at play here, and although the team are working so hard to resolve it, every \u2060lap I do… I am anywhere between 2 and 6 tenths down on the straights, it is pretty infuriating.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We are all trying to solve what is going on… I am watching on my steering wheel that I am losing speed when you are \u200bfull gas on the straight and I feel powerless.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We don\u2019t know \u200bwhat is going \u2060on. I don\u2019t think it is the power unit. There is something slowing me down on the straights.”<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Reliability woes for Mercedes<\/h4>\n

On the one hand, Mercedes will be eager to settle the problem that Russell is raising. The 28-year-old is adamant that some unknown issue is limiting his output.<\/p>\n

Simultaneously, there are other reliability concerns for Toto Wolff’s personnel to address. Above all else, reliability is becoming a key limiting factor for the Silver Arrows.<\/p>\n

Russell’s retirement in Canada, Antonelli’s DNF in Spain (and major setback in Silverstone) have all been costly for the German constructor.<\/p>\n

Although the W17’s performance is undeniable, it often leaves points on the table due to car-related failures. This has allowed the likes of Ferrari<\/a> to pick up victories and keep themselves within touching distance in the constructors.<\/p>\n

In short, Russell is understandably concerned about what he describes as a major problem. At the same time, his complaints will join an already long list of question marks for the Brackley-based outfit to answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Russell could only manage third place in qualifying for the Belgian GP, even with a 10-place grid penalty for Lando Norris handing the Mercedes driver a free position. Russell’s 2026 campaign has been characterised by difficulties with his W17. Despite being the more experienced Mercedes driver, it is his 19-year-old teammate Kimi Antonelli that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":39646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":true,"sfio_embed_code":"<\/smartframe-embed>","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1116,3],"tags":[2582,1450,121],"class_list":["post-39644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-motorsports","category-news","tag-f1-2026-season","tag-george-russell","tag-mercedes"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39644"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39650,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39644\/revisions\/39650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}