{"id":300069,"date":"2025-07-29T02:42:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T02:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/300069\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T02:42:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T02:42:11","slug":"george-russell-pins-mercedes-f1-downturn-on-fia-rule-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/300069\/","title":{"rendered":"George Russell pins Mercedes F1 downturn on FIA rule change"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Russell revealed he will meet with Mercedes to examine the team\u2019s Formula 1<\/a> Belgian Grand Prix<\/a> performance, one that he called the \u201cworst\u201d of the season.<\/p>\n

The Briton came home in a distant fifth place at Spa-Francorchamps, having qualified sixth, 35 seconds down on Oscar Piastri\u2019s race-winning McLaren.<\/p>\n

Changeable conditions and cooler temperatures have often been beneficial to the German marque\u2019s this season, but that wasn\u2019t the case on this particular weekend.<\/p>\n

Despite the team bringing upgrades to the front wing and rear corner, the W16 couldn\u2019t sufficiently challenge those ahead, leaving Russell bemused by its regression.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe performance, we need to really understand what is going on and why we\u2019ve taken such a step backwards because these conditions today, you would argue, are ideal for us and our car,\u201d he told media including Motorsport Week<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd once again, it\u2019s been the worst performance of the season. So, yeah, we\u2019re going to have a big sit-down this week and try and figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GeorgeGeorge Russell was frustrated by Mercedes\u2019 lack of competitiveness in Belgium<\/p>\n

Russell cites FIA technical directive as turning point<\/p>\n

When asked what the reasons for the dip in form are, Russell pinpointed the initial front wing changes brought about by the FIA\u2019s technical directives on flexibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I think, obviously, we had the change of the front wing in Barcelona,\u201d he addressed. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe then brought\u2026 we went in a slightly different direction afterwards to sort of tackle the issue of the change of front wing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd clearly, since that point, we\u2019ve taken a big step backwards. So, it could be as simple as just reverting back to something that we had earlier in the season. <\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, you can\u2019t do that with the front wing, but in terms of the rest of the set-up. But I don\u2019t know, it seems quite strange how we\u2019ve gone so far backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell explained the W16 has become much harder to drive, causing himself and team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who also struggled at Spa, to make mistakes through overdriving.<\/p>\n

He stated the car \u201cisn\u2019t feeling as nice to drive at the moment as it once did\u201d, adding that it \u201clacks rear stability, whereas at the start of the year it was much better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Kimi and I are collectively making more mistakes because the car is more challenging to drive,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, yeah, we need to sit down as a team. As I say, it may be as simple as reversing back like some of the changes we\u2019ve made. But, in F1, it\u2019s never that simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/strong> \u2013<\/strong> The miscommunication that wrecked Yuki Tsunoda\u2019s F1 Belgian GP points prospects<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell revealed he will meet with Mercedes to examine the team\u2019s Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix performance,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[109367,4199,707,4200,9824,4859,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-300069","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-belgiangp","9":"tag-f1","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula1","12":"tag-george-russell","13":"tag-mercedes","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114934221704201241","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}