{"id":27867,"date":"2025-07-28T04:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T04:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/27867\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T04:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T04:16:10","slug":"mercedes-took-a-step-backwards-a-few-months-ago-says-russell-after-poor-spa-weekend-%c2%b7-racefans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/27867\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes took a step backwards a few months ago says Russell after poor Spa weekend \u00b7 RaceFans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.racefans.net\/george-russell\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">George Russell<\/a> said Mercedes have taken a wrong turn with their car development after finishing a distant fifth in the Belgian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p>The driver who won the Canadian Grand Prix last month took the chequered flag almost 35 seconds behind race winner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.racefans.net\/oscar-piastri\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oscar Piastri<\/a>. After his sole pit stop Russell was on the tail of Max Verstappen but he finished 13 seconds behind the Red Bull driver.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to understand why we\u2019ve lost so much pace in recent races,\u201d said Russell, who hasn\u2019t finished in the top four since his victory in Montreal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course it\u2019s frustrating for all of us as a team,\u201d he told the official Formula 1 channel, adding that fifth place \u201cwas probably flattering the real pace of the car.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m at least happy we got the maximum possible,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Russell believes the team\u2019s problems can be traced back to a development decision they made earlier in the season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe made a clear change of direction a couple of months ago and I think it\u2019s been since that point we\u2019ve taken a step backwards,\u201d he said. \u201cIt sometimes takes a few races to understand what the real reasons are for that lack of pace.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-above-ad\">Advert | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.racefans.net\/contribute-racefans\/racefans-supporter\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut clearly it seems like we need to revert back to what we had earlier in the season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His team mate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.racefans.net\/f1-information\/drivers\/andrea-kimi-antonelli\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Andrea Kimi Antonelli<\/a> endured a tougher weekend, failing to progress beyond the first round in both qualifying sessions and failing to score any points. However he felt happier with his car\u2019s balance after increasing his wing level for the rain-hit grand prix.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday I had more confidence in the car,\u201d he said. \u201cDefinitely with the new wing I had more stability and that was helping. The car felt more connected so I definitely got some confidence back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut now it\u2019s time to really try and work for qualifying because when you start at the front it\u2019s another story completely. It\u2019s important especially for Budapest where it\u2019s even harder to overtake to really do a good qualifying in order to start at the front.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miss nothing from RaceFans<\/p>\n<p>Get a daily email with all our latest stories &#8211; and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:<\/p>\n<p>2025 Belgian Grand Prix<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.racefans.net\/tag\/2025-belgian-grand-prix\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Browse all 2025 Belgian Grand Prix articles<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell said Mercedes have taken a wrong turn with their car development after finishing a distant fifth&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[12703,1687,372,6537,9307,6964,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-27867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-2025-belgian-grand-prix","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-mercedes","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}