George Russell admitted he was upset after one other tough Formulation 1 weekend ended with out factors on the Belgian Grand Prix, with a boost-related situation leaving him susceptible on the opening lap earlier than contact with Lewis Hamilton compelled him into retirement.
The Mercedes driver had made a powerful begin at Spa-Francorchamps and seemed to be in competition on the entrance, however a lack of deployment on the opening lap considerably affected his straight-line velocity. Russell dropped backwards into the sector and located himself battling the Ferrari drivers earlier than his race got here to an early conclusion at Flip 5.
Operating alongside Hamilton, the 2 automobiles made contact, sending Russell into the gravel entice and ending his afternoon after solely a handful of corners.
The retirement left Russell with zero factors, whereas his Mercedes team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli went on to say victory and lengthen his championship lead. Russell admitted the outcome was one other irritating setback.
„It’s been one other tough weekend, and I go away Spa upset that we’ve had one other race the place we’ve not scored any factors.“
The Briton acknowledged that Mercedes has endured too many weekends the place it has did not maximise its potential, however insisted the workforce will regroup forward of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
„We’ve had too lots of these weekends not too long ago, however we’ll reset once more and see what we are able to do in Budapest. We wish to go into the shutdown with positivity and hopefully we are able to try this with a greater Grand Prix in Hungary.“
Russell defined that the enhance situation he skilled in the course of the race was totally different from the issues Mercedes had been investigating earlier within the weekend.
„The difficulty we confronted with our enhance on the opening lap was totally different to what we’ve been making an attempt to resolve earlier within the weekend.“
Regardless of the setback, Russell felt he had began the race in a powerful place: „I made begin and was in a good place to combat for the lead however didn’t have the velocity we anticipated on the run to Flip 5.“
The shortage of straight-line efficiency left him defenceless towards the automobiles behind: „I used to be overtaken by a number of automobiles behind and the incident with Lewis (Hamilton) adopted.“
Russell harassed that Mercedes is working onerous to deal with its reliability and efficiency points, admitting that the issues have already value the workforce invaluable factors.
„We’re working flat out as a workforce to enhance our reliability. We all know it has value us too many factors to this point this season and we’re all decided to get on high of it.“
Though the outcome was irritating, Russell praised the efforts of Mercedes‘ factories in Brackley and Brixworth: „It’s irritating for everybody however I do know simply how onerous everybody at Brackley and Brixworth is pushing to enhance it.“
F1GP Belgium
