Russell: Spielberg "confirmed where our strengths and weaknesses are with the W16"

On the back of a rather disappointing weekend at the Austrian Grand Prix, Mercedes driver George Russell conceded that the Red Bull Ring "confirmed where our strengths and weaknesses are with the W16."

Despite his promising pace on Friday, Andrea Kimi Antonelli started the Austrian Grand Prix from P9 on the grid. The Italian displayed strong performance in qualifying, but he was unable to complete his last push lap in Q3 due to yellow flags brought out for a spin of Pierre Gasly.

Although he hoped for better fortunes in the Spielberg race, his afternoon ended after just three corners. The Bologna-born driver locked up the rear brakes of his Mercedes into Turn 3, and was unable to decelerate enough to avoid the back of Max Verstappen’s RB21.

With both cars having suffered significant damage, both Antonelli and Verstappen were forced to retire from the Austrian Grand Prix.

His team-mate George Russell picked off his former team-mate Lewis Hamilton into Turn 1, but lost the place back quite quickly. The British driver was unable to challenge the McLarens and the Ferraris as his Mercedes struggled for race day on the hot day at the Red Bull Ring.

Reflecting on his race day at the Red Bull Ring, Russell stated: "This Austrian Grand Prix weekend just confirmed where our strengths and weaknesses are with the W16. When it’s too hot, we tend to underperform, and we really struggle to keep up with the leaders’ pace.

"P5 was therefore the maximum we could have done today. Finishing 60 seconds away from the winning driver in Lando (Norris) shows the work we need to do. Thankfully, we know the areas where we need to improve and we will be working hard towards this."

Signing off with a word for his expectations for the upcoming British Grand Prix, Russell noted: "We now quickly move on to next weekend. Silverstone last year was a really good race. We got pole position and showed good potential before our retirement.

"The team tends to do really well at the British Grand Prix so hopefully we can replicate that once again. We have our fingers crossed that the conditions will be slightly cooler than this weekend and we can get back in the fight for the podium."