{"id":861322,"date":"2026-08-19T22:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T22:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/861322\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T22:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T22:50:15","slug":"george-russell-reassured-after-f1-mercedes-power-unit-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/861322\/","title":{"rendered":"George Russell reassured after F1 Mercedes power unit discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">George Russell revealed details of his struggles throughout the 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/series\/single-seater\/formula-1\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/results\/2026\/drivers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">season<\/a> and said he felt a \u2018huge load off my mind\u2019 after learning the Mercedes issues were not the driver\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mercedes driver George Russell has experienced his fair share of hardships this season. Despite the Brackley-based team starting the season looking dominant, his teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli\u2019s performance has shone through more than his own. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russell\u2019s struggles with the W17 have not gone unnoticed. The Briton believed that the straight-line speed issues could be related to his driving style. However, he revealed that the issue lay with the power unit. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt is a huge load off my mind, but also while I\u2019m driving, through Silverstone and the majority of Friday and Saturday at Spa, I think about how I needed to drive to make the power unit fast in the straight,\u201d Russell told media, including Motorsport Week.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/George-Russell-F1-1024x576.webp\" alt=\"George Russell's F1 title credentials have unravelled in the first half of the 2026 season\" class=\"wp-image-254026\"  \/>George Russell\u2019s F1 title credentials have unravelled in the first half of the 2026 season<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Focus on the simple things\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The British Mercedes driver has spent the first half of the season being compared to his teammate every race weekend. It could be demoralising for the 28-year-old to sit 59 points behind the teenager. But he enters the second half of the season with greater peace of mind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After spending months believing he needed to change his driving technique to catch up to his teammate, he now feels a sense of relief knowing the issue is not with him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHow I pick up the throttle, the gear usage, how early I am on the throttle, and the data was telling us that this was probably the reason [I was struggling], but it turned out it wasn\u2019t the reason.\u201d Russell continued.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSo all of that effort over the course of three sessions, trying to re-optimise my driving around a new technique, was kind of for nothing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf I focus on the simple things, I know that is when I perform at my best, but we\u2019re not in a simplistic sport, so saying let\u2019s just solely focus on the simple things is easier said than done, sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the Dutch Grand Prix weekend ahead, it will be interesting to see how the teammates squabble amid the discovery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-vivid-red-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-697762a829b20cfb1c3c2a5bedf3d8ab wp-block-paragraph\">READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/2026\/08\/19\/liam-lawson-narrative-red-bull\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Liam Lawson denies \u2018ghosts\u2019 haunting Red Bull F1 narrative<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell revealed details of his struggles throughout the 2026 Formula 1 season and said he felt a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,817,3875,945,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-861322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-george-russell","tag-mercedes","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861322","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=861322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}