New George Russell evidence emerges after ‘serious’ Mercedes issue

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli secured his sixth pole position of the F1 2026 season and continues to confirm the incredible form he is in. 

His pole lap created a gap of as much as half a second relative to George Russell, but there may be a reason behind it. Where this huge deficit comes from and why Russell cannot reduce it, we analyse with the help of telemetry data.

George Russell reveals ‘serious issue’ in a straight line

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After qualifying at Spa, Russell pointed to a ‘serious issue’ which may go some way to explaining why he has been struggling over one lap.

He told PlanetF1.com and others: “Yesterday I was losing eight tenths in the straights. Today, I’m losing four tenths.

“It’s a step in the right direction. But we saw this from Silverstone. We thought we found the problem. We thought it was simply the brakes. It wasn’t the brakes.

“Then, we thought it was my driving style with the throttle and I convinced myself that it was something in me with the driving style.

“Now we’re very confident it’s not the driving style and that there’s a serious issue at play here.

“The team are working so hard to resolve it, but, every lap I do, when I see I’m down anywhere from two to six tenths on the straights, it’s pretty infuriating.”

Russell and Antonelli’s data tells us more

If we exclude the first free practice, which almost never shows the real situation on track, Kimi has absolutely dominated the weekend so far, setting the fastest times in every session, thereby justifying his role as the huge favourite to take pole position.

What we could see through FP2 and especially FP3 is quite a lot of variation in deployment strategies – every team tried to arrive at their own strategy that they thought could be the fastest.

If we look at the data from these sessions, the biggest differences are seen primarily in Pouhon and Turn 11, as well as, of course, Eau Rouge.

However, a difference in deployment strategy did not even exist between Russell and Antonelli, and yet the Italian was faster by almost 0.4 seconds in FP3.

Virtually the entire difference comes from the third sector, more precisely on the straight after Turn 15, when the new generation of cars suddenly begins charging the battery and sharply losing speed.

Just to illustrate this incredibly large difference in driving style, last season in the section between Turn 16 and Turn 17, Antonelli lost only 1 km/h of speed on this straight; this year, this figure amounts to as much as 48 km/h in this section of the track alone!

Although not the only one, this exact section is the main culprit behind the half-second deficit that George had during qualifying.

In the first sector, their times are almost identical, with the Briton actually having a minimal but visible advantage, and this even situation remains all the way until T10.

From the graph below, we can see that Kimi has a speed advantage between T10 and T11, which brings him about a 0.08-second advantage.

Also, a place where the Italian makes a more noticeable difference is Campus, where with greater commitment he manages to carry a higher apex speed.

However, as was the case in FP3, the biggest difference is exactly the section between Turn 16 and Turn 17.

Pay attention to the delta line, which has a large and constant climb here. Moreover, Antonelli manages to maintain a 10 km/h higher speed through Turn 17.

From a 0.14-second delta at the exit of Campus, the gap reaches a 0.4-second advantage for Kimi at the entry into the chicane.

An additional tenth comes precisely through the last two corners on the track, bringing us to the final half-second deficit, which is truly a very large difference even though we are racing on the longest track on the calendar.

It is obvious that the reason for such different performances in this section of the track is the deployment strategy; however, it is difficult to be more precise and detailed, considering it is the same car.

From the data, not a single section can be singled out where Russell was faster and which could be cited as the reason why the Briton is more aggressively charging his battery between Turn 16 and Turn 17 (except perhaps the start-finish straight, which is short anyway).

More as we unpack Belgian Grand Prix qualifying

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Even Russell himself sounded confused after qualifying, stating that he and his team have been very well aware of this problem even since qualifying in Austria.

He added that he had a similar problem at Silverstone, which is also a power-demanding track.

However, it seems there is no solution yet to the problem, and even more importantly, there is no full understanding from the engineering team as to where this problem actually comes from.

What is currently a fact is that Kimi Antonelli has found a better connection with the car, the engineers on his side of the garage managed to put the car in a better window, and all the pieces fell into place, along with the incredible form the young driver finds himself in.

Due to Lando Norris’s grid penalty, Russell will start Sunday’s race from P3, which is certainly a mitigating circumstance for George.

Antonelli has shown this season that besides qualifying, his race pace is also better compared to Russell’s, but with a different track position and the clean air effect – which is important here precisely due to the high tyre loads – absolutely nothing is guaranteed.

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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