George Russell blames Mercedes power problems for Belgian GP clash with Lewis Hamilton after huge F1 title race blow | F1 News

George Russell says a power problem with his Mercedes was responsible for leaving him vulnerable in a first-lap collision with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton that took him out of the Belgian Grand Prix.

Russell started third on the grid and held his position through the first corner but was then passed by Hamilton and left with McLaren’s Oscar Piastre as they came to the end of the long Kemmel Straight.

Russell broke away late and tried to recover third position from Hamilton, but the pair made contact which sent the Mercedes into the gravel and out of the race.

Despite Hamilton being penalized five seconds by the stewards for causing the collision, Russell said Sky Sports F1 He was more disappointed with his car than his former teammate.

“I’m absolutely straight,” said Russell, who won the championship leader’s race and fell 50 points behind his Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli.

“I lost three positions down the straight at turn five and then the incident was a racing incident.

“Maybe I could have been a little bit wider, maybe he (Hamilton) could have braked a little bit more. If I had gone down the straight it wouldn’t have happened.

“Very, very disappointed.”

The incident comes after Russell bemoaned his lack of power during qualifying on Saturday, when he was more than half a second behind fourth-placed pole-sitter Antonelli.

Russell has been confused in recent weeks as to why he usually can’t match Antonelli’s pace.

He said at Thursday’s media day at Spa that he was working to change his driving style because he believed his time was running out on the new 2026 generation cars, but revealed on Saturday that he had changed his mind and no longer thought his driving style was a problem.

Asked how Mercedes could get to the bottom of the problem, Russell added: “I appreciate that everyone is working hard to solve the problem, but I’m standing in the running five here (in the TV interview column).

“It felt like I was in a good position to fight for the lead until turn one and then, suddenly there’s no power and it’s all gone.”

Wolff: All Mercedes engines lack power on the straight because of the problem

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said there was a problem with all the team’s engines that affected power on the straights.

In addition to building their own engines, Mercedes supplies power units to McLaren, Alpine and Williams.

Wolf said Sky Sports F1: “The accident that happened is unfortunate for us. We lost a lot of constructors’ points and Jorge’s drivers’ points.

“All our Mercedes engines had a problem that we lacked power in the straights. It hurt him badly and it went 100 per cent on us.

“We are doing our best as a team. We have the most powerful power unit, a powerful car capable of winning.

“Everyone is doing their best to minimize mistakes and they still happen because we’re human at work.”

Mercedes clearly had the fastest car in the first 10 rounds of the season, but reliability issues prevented them from building up a points advantage to reflect their speed dominance.

Russell’s DNF was his second on Sunday after engine failure in Canada, while Antonelli retired at Barcelona due to engine failure and then a wheel-guard failure that ruled him out of the points from a possible victory at Silverstone.

Wolff added: “We let Kimi down at Silverstone where George got a podium, which is a better result than it should have been.

“Then one DNF for Montreal, another in Barcelona. That’s a little bit of the story of our season. It’s a technical game, a mechanical game.

“We’ve come up with a product (power unit) that’s so powerful and I want to fix reliability rather than just accelerating a slow engine or a slow car.

“We’re giving it 100 percent and it has to be 100 percent because we’ve lost a lot of points with reliability. We should be a lot further than we are.”

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