Well, at least Mercedes Formula 1 driver George Russell no longer needs to engage the services of a professional art forger.
On Thursday at Spa, he described having to emulate his team-mate’s driving style, rather than follow his own instincts, in these terms: “It’s like if somebody asked you to draw the Mona Lisa and you’ve got the Mona Lisa next to you, do you think you could achieve it straight away?”
But after qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, where he was 0.508s off team-mate Kimi Antonelli’s pole lap, Russell claimed that the top speed difference between the two works Mercedes can’t be fully accounted for in terms of driving style alone.
“Yesterday [in FP1 and FP2] I was losing eight tenths in the straights, today I’m losing four tenths,” he said.
“So, it’s a step in the right direction, but we saw this from Silverstone – we thought we found the problem, we thought it was simply the brakes. It wasn’t the brakes.
“Then we thought it was my driving style, with the throttle, and I convinced myself that it was something in me, with the driving style. Now, we’re very confident it’s not the driving style and that there’s a serious issue at play here and the team are working hard to resolve it.
“But every lap I do, when I see I’m down anywhere from two tenths to six tenths in the straights, it’s pretty infuriating.”
George Russell is down “two tenths to six tenths” on his team-mate
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
Among the more subtle unexpected outcomes of the 2026 technical regulations is the interplay between chassis dynamics and driving style with the energy characteristics of the new power units. Given the relatively small storage capacity of the cars’ batteries, drivers who scrub off too much speed in corners, and who then use additional electrical deployment to regain that speed, pay the consequences further around the lap when the charge levels diminish.
At so-called “energy starved” tracks such as Silverstone and Spa, where the ratio of corners to straights – and the type of corners – make for fewer opportunities to harvest energy through braking and lift-and-coast, problems such as this tend to compound through the lap.
Mercedes’ working theory for the deficit between Russell and Antonelli was that Russell’s driving style – he tends to brake later and more aggressively, potentially carrying less cornering speed – accounted for him running out of electrical charge sooner. Hence him talking in Austria, and again at Spa, about having to adopt counter-intuitive driving techniques to get the best out of the car.
But now, both he and the team are looking for answers elsewhere.
“I felt very happy and content with my lap, to be honest, as a minimum it would have been fighting for the front row,” said Russell.
“But my whole focus for the last 36 hours has been on straight line speed. It hasn’t been focusing on the setup, the tyres or anything, because we’re all trying to solve what is going on.
“Even my last lap, for some reason I lost another tenth and a half to myself, just on the straight. You’re watching on your steering wheel, just losing speed when you’re full gas on the straight. Yeah, you feel powerless.
George Russell says he feels “powerless”
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
“We don’t know what’s going on. I don’t think it’s the power unit, to be honest.
“But there’s something slowing us down in the straights and, as I said, the team are really on it now to try and solve it.”
Investigation of the available data reveals that Russell’s main area of time loss to Antonelli – certainly when comparing their fastest Q3 laps – is on the final ‘straight’ between Blanchimont and the chicane. And as he said, he was slower there than he had been on his previous lap.
Russell’s race engineer, Marcus Dudley, informed him during qualifying that his main area of cornering time loss was Turn 14 – Campus – and the data confirms a small deficit there in Q3. But really, that was just the starting point for a gap that expanded at a linear rate from one tenth to five tenths between Stavelot and the chicane.
The data traces for speed through this section track broadly parallel lines, but with Antonelli’s car always a few kilometres per hour faster.
Team boss Toto Wolff suggested one possible explanation could be that Antonelli and Russell are out of sync in terms of power unit usage: Antonelli’s engine is ‘fresher’.
Toto Wolff admits Mercedes “are unable to explain” George Russell’s struggles
Photo by: Anni Graf – Formula 1 via Getty Images
“George is obviously suffering from lack of straight-line speed, which we are unable to explain, a couple of tenths,” said Wolff.
“We’ve literally left no stone unturned. Is it the power unit, that Kimi has a brand new power unit and this makes a difference?
“We will see on the next tracks because they will be less energy-starved. It doesn’t make a big difference.”
It’s often the case that drivers convince themselves a problem lies within the car when it’s actually within their heads. Teams will humour them up to a point, even changing chassis, but from this point the leeway for excuses rapidly begins to diminish.
If driving style adaptation hasn’t achieved the desired effect, though, it’s worth exploring other options.
“We thought it was in the driving style and technique, but we’ve finally concluded it’s not,” said Russell.
“We’ve changed everything. It was four tenths in the straights in Q3 – and it’s frustrating, every single lap I’ve come in this weekend seeing anywhere from two tenths to four tenths. In FP2 yesterday it was seven tenths.
“The team are working so hard to understand what it is. We saw it as early as Austria actually. We saw signs but we always thought there was a reason.
“Sprint qualifying in Silverstone we saw three and a half tenths loss. We thought we found the problem.
“We keep going through this process of we think it’s this. We change it. It’s not this.
“Maybe it’s the driving style. I thought it was the driving style.
“Honestly, I came into this weekend, I said on Thursday, I think it’s the driving style.
“Change the driving style. It’s not the driving style. As I said, the team are working super hard to understand what it is.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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