George Russell called his fifth in Belgium \u201cthe worst performance of the season\u201d and said Mercedes \u201cneed to understand\u201d why the car has lost so much performance.<\/p>\n
After a good start to the year that climaxed with a win in Canada, Russell\u2019s last three results read fifth, 10th, fifth with the\u00a0W16 falling down the pecking order.<\/p>\n
George Russell says Mercedes need \u2018sit down\u2019 to reverse form<\/p>\n
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n
While previous problems could be blamed on extreme heat, the team\u2019s struggles at the damp Spa were perhaps the most worrying sign of how far Mercedes<\/a> has fallen away from the sport\u2019s top runners.<\/p>\n Russell<\/a> finished\u00a034.863 seconds off winner Oscar Piastri and, even if McLaren is in a league of its own, 13 seconds separated the Briton from fourth-placed Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n After the race, which leaves him looking over his shoulder to Charles Leclerc for fourth in the Drivers\u2019 Standings<\/a>, Russell described it as \u201cthe worst performance of the season\u201d and demanded the team discover why its performance had fallen off so much.<\/p>\n \u201cMaximum in terms of the finishing result, very underwhelming in terms of the performance,\u201d he told media, including PlanetF1.com. \u201cWe need to really understand what is going on and why we\u2019ve taken such a step backwards, because these conditions today, you would argue, are ideal for us in our car, and once again, it\u2019s been the worst performance of the season.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we\u2019re going to have a big sit-down this week and try to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n As for his suspicions, Russell pointed towards a front wing change the team made in Barcelona.<\/p>\n \u201cI think obviously we had the change with 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 \u201cSo it 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 setup\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cBut I don\u2019t know, it seems quite strange how we\u2019ve gone so far backwards.<\/p>\n More reaction from the Belgian GP<\/p>\n Lando Norris \u2018couldn\u2019t have won\u2019 Belgian GP in Oscar Piastri admission<\/a><\/p>\n