F1 Austrian GP “worse than I even could imagine”

George Russell reckons the Mercedes Formula 1 squad faced the “perfect storm” of pain during a disappointing Austrian Grand Prix.

Having won in Canada a fortnight ago, Mercedes once again struggled with the higher temperatures, as a sweltering Spielberg presented a number of negatives for the team.

With Andrea Kimi Antonelli crashing out on the opening lap, it was left to Russell to deliver for Mercedes but – despite an early pass on the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton – he fell back into fifth spot and was over half a minute adrift of his former team-mate.

In all it left Russell, who spent the weekend discussing his future with Mercedes and the fact it might still be eyeing up a move for Max Verstappen, bemoaning a tough weekend.

“This was a bit of a perfect storm,” he said. “The tarmac’s like one of the roughest of the season.

“Obviously, high-speed circuit, you’re going around the track many times. So, the most number of laps in the season and then 50 degrees track temp. So, it was sort of that perfect storm, really.

“I was expecting a bad race and it was worse than I even could imagine. The problem is so clear, coming off the back of Canada with the win, with no tyre overheating, we’re the quickest.

“But as soon as you get to a track where there’s a bit of overheating, we drop off so much. So, to be honest, the team have been working so hard for six months now to try and solve this issue. We’ve got ideas, but nothing that’s really, we’re not really making major headway right now.”

Mercedes is now one point behind second-placed Ferrari in the constructors’ championship, while Antonelli crashing into Verstappen meant that fourth-placed Red Bull scored no points and is further adrift.

“For sure damage limitation, I think,” added Russell, whose team is 207 points behind leader McLaren..

“I still take pride in the fact that almost every race this year, we’re maximising the results. Today, P5, we definitely could not have achieved anything higher than P5.

“The same way as last week, the win was the potential, and we got the win. So, fingers crossed, it stays cloudy for the rest of the season.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

Russell will be crossing his fingers for traditional British weather when teams head to Silverstone next weekend.

The cooler conditions favoured Mercedes there last season as Russell took pole ahead of Hamilton, who then went on to take his final win for the team.

Told the forecast is predicting a temperature in the low-20s, Russell replied: “Brilliant.

“Silverstone is the highest-speed circuit, but the tarmac is actually quite new, which is good news. If the track temperature is the same like last year, it was like 20 degrees, I think, last year.

“So, it was quite cool, we were on pole. But if it’s two weeks ago, it was 31 degrees in England. So, if it’s 31 degrees, we won’t be on pole this year.”