Russell counts 14 troubled weekends: We need to ask deeper questions

When Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord said that most of the technical problems had affected George Russell, he was not exaggerating. After another disappointment, the British driver took the trouble to compile his own statistics on his troubled weekends. The figures make grim reading.

Kimi Antonelli arrived at the Brazilian circuit wearing a world champion’s cap and T-shirt, while George Russell arrived with no remaining hope of winning this year’s title. Unreliability bears much of the blame. Russell has suffered a string of retirements, but even the weekends when he took the chequered flag were not trouble-free.

After the Mexican Grand Prix, Mercedes began an early review of the season, but it was not looking for successes. “I went through every race this season with my engineers, and we’ve only had six races this season where we had not an issue,” George Russell revealed on Thursday. “So, 14 of those races we’ve had things that have been what we thought was bad luck, but we need to start questioning things more deeply when it’s happening so often, especially on our side.”

On Thursday, Russell faced the media for the first time since the chequered flag. Mercedes was fined €5,000 after its driver failed to fulfil his media obligations. Toto Wolff did not hold it against him, however, saying he would have been surprised had Russell put himself through facing the cameras and microphones in Mexico.

“Yeah, I mean, post-Mexico I was just more disappointed with how the race unfolded,” he said, explaining his absence from the media pen. “It felt like a good opportunity to fight for the victory. You know, starting P2 in Mexico is always a great chance to go for the lead at Turn 1, and then just another race with something outside of your control was very difficult to accept.”

The British driver clarified, however, that he did not blame his engineers or Mercedes. “I don’t think the team have let me down, honestly, because these things do happen. Nobody intends for it to happen. We’re all trying our best to deliver the best. And last year we had a car that was extremely reliable, and we only finished fourth in the championship. This year we have a car that’s extremely fast but has been unreliable. So, which one do you prefer? We weren’t satisfied last year, and then, of course, even though the team will win both championships, they’re still not satisfied with this season.”

Had his car been as reliable as the one on the other side of the garage, 2026 would have been somewhat easier. “And then, as for my own championship, it’s difficult to put a number on how much it’s impacted the championship because it’s often about momentum. And when we start the season, and we had the issue in China with the failure in qualifying, we had the issues in Japan, we had the engine failure in Canada, we had the drive-through penalty that wasn’t a drive-through penalty in Monaco; these things compound,” Russell stressed.

“And if you’re in the championship fight or you’re within touching distance, you don’t feel like you’re having to do catch up,” reflected the King’s Lynn-born driver, who had instead been forced to compensate for technical failures with his driving. “And if you’re in the championship fight or you’re within touching distance, you don’t feel like you’re having to do catch up, and maybe that contributed towards overdriving and trying to overachieve. Maybe not. You can’t answer it, and I’m not looking to answer it. Just altogether, it hasn’t been the year we wanted.”