Relief for Russell as Mercedes identifies incorrect calibration as cause of straight-line issues

George Russell says Mercedes has identified the cause of his power unit deployment issues in recent races as incorrect calibration that takes a weight off his mind ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Mercedes acknowledged Russell was losing time in a straight line during the last race weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, with the Briton having also complained of a deficit during the previous round at Silverstone. Following the event in Belgium, Russell says there was a clear indication of where to look for a root cause to his problems, and that he’s confident a fix is now in place.

“I'm feeling good now,” Russell said. “I think we've uncovered some of the issues that were holding us back during the weekend in Spa. That is refreshing to hear and to see the hard work that has gone on back at the factory to get to the bottom of it.

“At the end of the day, we're in this together, and between us we know that what happened in Spa – and saw signs of it in Silverstone – is not to the standard that we want, collectively.

“That's not just me towards the team; we are in this together. Of course, when you've just been punted out of the race and you're sat in the gravel trap on lap 1, your emotions are pretty high and especially with the events that led up to Turn 5.

“But it's never been through a lack of effort of trying to get to the bottom of what we thought there was an issue. We were struggling to see the signs of where it was coming from, but Spa really gave us a great opportunity where to look for the problem. And when the team looked in this area, they uncovered the problem, which was great to see. But these cars, these power units are so complex, you can't check every single tiny parameter because there's just so many of them.

“Effectively it was numbers on a screen that were not quite calibrated properly. So it's not like the hardware is wrong or there's a problem with the hardware. But there were two issues in Spa as well. I think the deployment was not quite deploying optimally across the lap – and we saw this with [Oscar] Piastri as well who had a similar issue.

“So that was sort of one of my problems. But then on top of that, we had something separate. It was all linked to the same calibration being not quite right. I'm not going to say simply numbers on the screen, but now we know which numbers potentially were not correct. We can rectify that, recalibrate things, and get the power unit to perform at its full potential."

Russell admits he is relieved because the explanation should allow him to return to a more natural driving style, having been searching for a solution from behind the wheel.

“It's a huge load off my mind, but also while I'm driving, to be honest, because throughout some laps in Silverstone and then throughout the majority of Friday and Saturday in Spa, I was thinking about how I needed to drive to make the power unit fast in the straight – how I pick up the throttle, the gear usage, how early I am at full throttle…

“And the data was telling us that was probably the reason, but it turned out it wasn't the reason. So all of that effort over the course of three sessions trying to re-optimize my driving around a new technique was kind of for nothing.

“I'm looking forward now just going into a weekend where I can just try and focus on driving fast, focus on the simple things. I know that is when I perform at my best, but we're not in a simplistic sport, so saying, ‘Let's just solely focus on the simple things’ is easier said than done sometimes.”