Mercedes have taken "big step backwards towards the midfield," claims Russell
Following a tough qualifying session on Saturday, Mercedes driver George Russell was left perplexed about the lack of speed, suggesting that the Brackley-based outfit has taken "big step backwards towards the midfield."
In Saturday's sprint race, George Russell started from P13 on the grid, whilst his team-mate Kimi Antonelli lined up in P19 after both drivers were hampered in Sprint Qualifying on Friday.
In a quiet race, Russell made up one position to come home P12 with Antonelli advancing two positions to P17, leaving Mercedes with no points to collect.
Qualifying proved a tricky affair too with the car struggling for the pace needed to fight for the front two rows of the grid. In Q1, both drivers improved on their final efforts but Antonelli was knocked out in P18.
The four-time Grand Prix winner meanwhile progressed to Q3 but could only manage P6 on his last run. Speaking of his performance, Russell was left perplexed about the lack of speed.
“My laps felt really strong. But clearly as a team we're off the pace this weekend. And, other than yesterday, this is my worst qualification of the year – same for Kimi so we need to understand what's going on.”
Following a tough sprint qualifying on Friday, Mercedes have made some "sensible changes" to the set-up of the W16, but Russell conceded that the modifications did not deliver the results the Brackley-based squad had hoped for.
“Historically, on Sprint Race weekends, if you have a bad Sprint, if you turn the car upside down for the next day, it rarely works," the Briton added.
"So we made some sensible changes, but we just need to understand – the first six races of the year, we had four podiums, now we've had one in the last six, and clearly we've taken a big step backwards towards the midfield.”
Mercedes elected to run a relatively low-downforce aerodynamic configuration at Spa-Francorchamps which helped Russell excel in the first and last sector, but he struggled to match the cornering speed of his rivals through the medium-speed turns in the middle sector.
The lower downforce level can be a handicap should today's Spa race take place in wet conditions: “In stint one there won't be any more overtakes [than in the Sprint Race].
"But of course when you pit, if it's dry, nobody knows if this Hard tyre will be a good tyre or not, and that may force people for a two-stop, people might try the one-stop, so always when you have a variety of strategy, options appear. But it looks to be wet – wet races often create some carnage as well…”
