Since Russell won the Canadian Grand Prix from pole position<\/a> this June, the Mercedes<\/a> driver also only finished the Austrian Grand Prix in P5, the British Grand Prix in P10 and the Belgian Grand Prix in P5. The 27-year-old also ranked P12 in the F1 Sprint at Spa after qualifying P13.<\/p>\n Russell and Mercedes\u2019 strategic errors cost them in the British GP<\/a>, having pitted for dry tyres while Silverstone was too wet to get off the intermediate rubber. But Mercedes were baffled by their pace deficit to McLaren in the Belgian GP<\/a>, having run nearly a second per lap slower.<\/p>\n Their woes in the Ardennes forest last weekend even left Mercedes holding a crisis meeting ahead of this week\u2019s Hungarian Grand Prix to explain why Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli<\/a> struggled badly at the Belgian GP. The cooler conditions at Spa should have suited their car.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Alex Jacques believes that Mercedes \u2018regret\u2019 one Andrea Kimi Antonelli career decision after his difficult Belgian Grand Prix<\/a><\/p>\n Position Constructors’ Standings PointsPts 1 516 2 248 3 220 4 192 <\/p>\n Mercedes sat second in the F1 constructors\u2019 standings<\/a> with a 16-point lead over Ferrari after Russell secured their sole win of the 2025 F1 season<\/a> so far in the Canadian GP. But they now trail the Scuderia by 28 in the scrap for second place, with leaders McLaren 296 points clear.<\/p>\n And Motorsport.com<\/a> reports that Mercedes suspect Russell\u2019s victory as Antonelli sealed his debut F1 podium in the Canadian GP<\/a> led their engineers \u2018astray\u2019 over the true effectiveness of the rear suspension update they revised in Montreal, having debuted the set-up at Imola.<\/p>\n Mercedes\u2019 rear suspension upgrade in Canada<\/a> may have masked some of their W16\u2019s issues that have become more evident over the three rounds since. But \u2018some in the paddock\u2019 also believe Mercedes are still paying the price after the FIA\u2019s clampdown on flexible front wings<\/a>.<\/p>\n The FIA<\/a> tightened the front wing rules at the Spanish Grand Prix, where Russell came P4 and Antonelli retired with an engine failure. The permitted flex was cut from 15 to 10mm when the load is applied to both sides of the wing, and from 20 to 15mm when applied to just one side.<\/p>\n What has George Russell said about the FIA\u2019s flexible front wing clampdown hurting Mercedes? Russell appeared to confirm the suspicions that some in the F1 paddock hold about the FIA clamping down on flexible front wings hurting Mercedes at the Belgian GP last weekend. He also stated that Mercedes have taken a \u2018big step backwards\u2019 since introducing a new design.<\/p>\n Mercedes debuted their modified front wing to meet the FIA\u2019s new flexi regulations at Imola for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix one round prior to the new rules coming into force at the Spanish GP. But the Silver Arrows are still struggling for high-speed stability six rounds later.<\/p>\n READ MORE: All you need to know about Mercedes F1 Team from team principal to lineage<\/a><\/p>\n Russell said at Spa, via E<\/a>SPN<\/a>: \u201cObviously, we had the change of the front wing in Barcelona. We then went in a slightly different direction afterwards to sort of tackle the issue of the change of front wing. And clearly, since that point, we\u2019ve taken a big step backwards.<\/p>\n \u201cIt could be as simple as just reverting back to something that we had earlier in the season. Of 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><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell has been delivering his best Formula 1 season so far this term, yet the Mercedes star…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[12295,64,63,32188,837,3875,945,806,805,803,804,32189,85],"class_list":["post-35211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-canadian-grand-prix","tag-fia","tag-george-russell","tag-mercedes","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-spanish-grand-prix","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Mercedes](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2220311025-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by Minas Panagiotakis\/Getty ImagesF1 paddock figures blame Mercedes\u2019 lack of pace on the FIA\u2019s flexi front wing clampdown<\/p>\n![\"Mercedes](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226779084-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by Nicolas Economou\/NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n