George Russell bluntly honest about Mercedes loss of form ahead of Spanish GP

Daily Mirror

6 days ago

Mercedes have endured a rough few weeks with disappointing performances and results for George Russell and Kimi Antonelli at Imola and Monaco, ahead of Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix
George Russell is confident that Mercedes' sudden loss of form is nothing more than a blip. The Silver Arrows enjoyed a strong and consistent start to the season but this triple header of European races has not been kind to them so far.
Russell enjoyed an impressive run in the early rounds of the campaign but failed to finish in the top five for the first time at Imola two weekends ago, when he slipped from third on the grid to seventh while team-mate Kimi Antonelli suffered a mechanical issue which meant he failed to finish.
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And things didn't get any better in Monaco. Antonelli crashed in qualifying while it was Russell's turn to suffer from reliability gremlins which meant they both started well outside the top 10 and, with overtaking virtually impossible, they finished pointless.
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Mercedes remain second in the constructors' championship, though those results have seen their advantage over those trailing them cut. They are now just four points ahead of Red Bull while fourth-placed Ferrari are only one further point behind.
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Mercedes will be keen to stop the rot and Russell believes they can do so at this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix. "It's obviously been two poor races," he admitted. "We;ve been inside of the top five every single session up until Imola, so we're hoping to get back into our usual form and have a clean weekend.
"With the changes to the front wing [regulation], there's a bit of relearning all of the teams will have to take, but I don't expect it to shake the order up too much.
"I don't see any reason why [Mercedes can't get back on form]. As I said, up until Imola we've been inside that top five every single qualifying and race. Imola was a bad race and Monaco things [were] slightly out of our control, so I don't see any reason why we wouldn't be back in that fight for the top five."
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Mercedes have not won a race so far in 2025 with their engine customers McLaren dominating in that regard. Other than Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, only Max Verstappen has tasted Grand Prix victory this season, and McLaren enjoy a 172-point advantage over Mercedes as a result.
And Russell believes it will be tough again to get the better of the championship leaders with conditions likely to be against his team. He added: "Hopefully [we'll be] fighting for the podium, but we do know our race pace especially in hot races is a step behind McLaren, and this weekend is going to be very hot.
"The track is going to be over 50 degrees for the majority of the weekend, the only difference being here is we're on the harder compound of tyres, whereas in Imola and in Jeddah where we struggled the most this season it was on the softest compound of tyres, so that's one small change."