George Russell says he’s ‘past the point of disappointment’ as an engine issue in the Hungarian GP added to Mercedes’ car problems during the F1 season.
Russell started the race in sixth place, but his car suffered from an anti-stall which saw him drop to the back of the race from the beginning.
He managed to pick up the pace in the end to secure a seventh-placed finish.
This caused Russell to lose ground in the charge for a title with him sitting at third, nine points behind Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and 59 away from his team-mate Kimi Antonelli, who’s comfortably in first place.
The team’s unhappy
Russell explained that the whole Mercedes team is just as frustrated as him with this season’s issues.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, he said: “Obviously the problems are happening, but the whole team feels it as well.
“They’re as pissed off as I am with how it’s unfolded.
“We need to look at ourselves and ensure it’s nothing we’re doing wrong that is contributing to these errors.
“Oscar [Piastri] had his [gearbox] thing as well.
“It’s not like we’re the only one, but it does feel like it is happening substantially more to me than others.
“Hopefully it swings around. I don’t wish any bad luck on anyone.
“But I’ve never had a season like this in my whole career, let alone my F1 career.”
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Where it went wrong
The Mercedes driver gave some detail into how the poor start unfolded.
Russell said: “I was on the throttle waiting then all of a sudden the engine was going all over the place, it was revving really high and really low.
“Add it to the list of things that have happened in the first half of this year and pray things calm down in the second half.”
He did admit that there are “things in my control I need to do better”, but also said that “there are a lot of things out of your control”.
Past the point of disappointment
With such a hard first half to the season, Russell is looking past the obvious struggles and trying to keep a level head about the situation.
He said: “I’m sort of past the point of disappointment now, because if I continue to be disappointed with everything that goes on, I’ll just be disappointed every day of the week.
“So I’ve got to stay positive.
“The pace was very strong. The team said I was as strong as anybody out there, which I haven’t been there for probably three races, so I will take positives there.
“But yeah, it’s just unbelievable the list of things that’s happened this season.”
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Toto has his say
Another issue for Russell was needing to change his power unit for the race in Hungary after an engine crack in qualifying.
This means the driver may face a grid penalty later in the year.
Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, said: “In terms of engine penalties, I still very much hope we don’t need to take it.
“We need to decide when that is, when we need to take one and which tracks.”
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