Mercedes chasing ‘serious’ George Russell ‘issue’ after Belgian GP qualifying

George Russell has revealed Mercedes is chasing a “serious issue” on his car, with a mystery problem affecting his lap times for a second consecutive race weekend.

At Silverstone, Russell’s weekend was compromised by continuous straight-line speed deficits and, in Belgium, the same issue continues to plague his car.

George Russell reveals Mercedes straight-line speed issue

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With Kimi Antonelli taking an emphatic pole position for Mercedes, Russell was unable to join in the fight at the very front as the British driver could only manage fourth place, half a second off the pace of his teammate.

Climbing out of his car to return to the paddock and speak to the media, Russell revealed that his attempts were hampered by a lingering straight-line speed issue that is visible in the data.

“Could be worse. Could be much better,” he sighed, as he looked back over his session.

“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 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.”

On surface level, it would be easy to write off Russell’s explanation as merely the latest chapter of a story that’s evolved since the start of the season: that Antonelli is extracting more from the W17 than what Russell is capable of.

But the British driver confirmed that he was pleased with his performance, suggesting that, without the deficit, he would have been fighting for, at least, the front row of the grid near his teammate.

“But my whole focus for the last 36 hours has been on straight line speed,” he said.

“It hasn’t been focused on the setup, the tyres, or anything because all we’re trying to solve is what is going on.

“Even my last lap, for some reason, I lost another tenth and a half to myself just on the straight, and you’re watching on your steering wheel, just losing speed, when you’re full gas on the straight. You feel powerless. So we don’t know what’s going on.

“I don’t think it’s the power unit, to be honest. But there’s something slowing us down at the straights and the team are really, really on it now to try and solve it.”

Asked whether he’s fighting the temptation to try clawing back time by overdriving through the corners, Russell said, “It’s tempting, but my engineers have done a really good job of highlighting where I’m losing.

“When I cross the line, you see a half a second down, it feels pretty rubbish.

“But when you realise more than 75 per cent of that’s coming from the power unit, you feel a bit better.

“I was pleased with my lap when I look at the corners, there’s a lot of corners I was faster.

“There are definitely corners I needed to improve, but the corners look like a normal fight you’d have for a pole. The straights is not.

“I don’t know what the solution is, but I’m praying ahead of Budapest, we’ll find it.”

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