George Russell: Mercedes driver ‘knocked down’ but vows to fight for F1 title as team work to solve mystery car problem | F1 News

George Russell says he is “knocked out” but will “bounce back” after the latest setback in his world championship challenge at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Having cut his title deficit to Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli from 68 points to just 25 points over the previous three rounds, benefiting from two reliability issues in the Italian’s car, Russell fell 50 points behind at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday when his race lasted just five corners before colliding with Hamilton.

But Russell’s post-race frustration at his early exit, and tough race weekend overall, was aimed not at his former teammate but at weekend-long electrical problems with his Mercedes car that he said left him vulnerable to an incident on the first lap.

The Briton has been searching for strong form for several months after failing to match Antonelli’s pace on a consistent basis, but in a social media post on Monday, he decided to continue fighting in his championship chase.

“It’s down, we’re coming back,” Russell wrote.

“No matter how often.

“This year has been a difficult moment but I will not stop fighting.”

Wolff explains Russell’s power problem

While Mercedes is still working to get to the bottom of the mysterious straight-line speed issues affecting Russell’s car, team principal Toto Wolff explained after Sunday’s race how two separate problems contributed to the Briton’s difficult weekend.

Regarding the first deployment in the session before Nation Day – which Russell initially hoped that would be corrected by changing the driving style But that wasn’t the case – Wolff said it compromised the Briton’s pace in the final sector of the long Spa-Francorchamps lap relative to Antonelli.

“Power units are very complex, the way you harvest, the way you deploy, the interaction with the driver,” said Wolff of the 2026’s new engines, which feature about a 50-50 split between electric and traditional internal combustion output.

“We have a super strong package – championship-winning chassis and power unit, but we’re still trying to do our best to solve the reliability issue.

“And sometimes a new rule (irregularity) happens. With Jorge, over the weekend, there was definitely something in the engine that we identified which meant he had less power to put into turn 18 – that was the most visible.

“It’s good that we saw it here because in Budapest, which is not energy hungry, it would have been more difficult to detect it.

“But that still doesn’t make it any better for him. And that’s probably half or more of the gap to Kimmy.”

All eight Mercedes-powered cars on the grid were hampered by separate and “new” boost problems at the start of Sunday’s race from Turn One.

Andrew Shovlin, the team’s director of trackside engineering, said Russell’s problems on the first lap were “more extreme” and so he was effectively a sitting duck on Kemmel Straight as the two Ferraris passed him, with the Briton eventually retiring at Les Combes due to contact with Hamilton.

Wolff added: “All the Mercedes engines lacked power from turn one, so it wasn’t just George. It affected him more than Kimi, but Kimi also had the problem to a certain degree.

“And that meant that he didn’t come out at the end of the straight in P3, but P5.

“So, he lost two of his positions, and then obviously the accident with Lewis.”

‘He has to get an answer’ – Russell heading to Hungary now?

He spoke at the time of Sky Sports F1 On the post-race show in Belgium, Karun Chandhok suggested Russell would seek a concrete engineering explanation before this weekend’s race in Hungary as to exactly what confusing straight-line speed was causing the problem.

“I think he needs to go back and try to get a clear answer from the engineering sense,” Chandhok said.

“We’ve all had conversations with the people at Mercedes this weekend, and the impression we’re getting is that they don’t have a clear answer.

“They have to go back, look at their data, have a couple of days to digest it between now and Budapest, because he can’t go into the next race weekend with a four-tenths deficit in straight-line pace.

“You’re taking a pencil to a sword fight, so there’s no point in doing that. He needs to get an answer, and if that means they have to change the power unit and take a fine, then maybe they’ll do it to try to clear that suspicion.

“Because as a racing driver, when you have doubts about the package or the car coming into the weekend and whether you’ve got a fair fight, it’s a scary place to be. He’ll be looking for clear engineering-led answers, I think.”

Russell said in a post-race interview that, having also suffered technical problems earlier in the season, notably while leading in China and Canada, he was now “numb with frustration”.

Asked how he can keep his driver’s spirits up, Wolff said: “You have to understand that in these situations when a driver is very emotional. But on the other hand, as a Formula 1 driver, you are part of a very elite group.

“I think it’s quite an honor to drive a Mercedes. Sometimes we let ourselves down. And it’s just the driver, but it’s also us.

“It’s valuable constructors’ points that we lost in our fight against Ferrari. So, I hope the numb feeling will go away. We’ll try to help rebuild optimism and positivity.”

Wolff, who has known 28-year-old Russell for more than a decade, added: “I think all drivers, at least the ones I’ve worked with, when they have a tough spell and it happens to any sports person, you have to find a way to motivate or build up.

“George has a way, and I’m definitely trying to do that. I’ve known him for so long, I understand the frustration, and the team is there 100 percent.”

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