George Russell’s alarming “getting slower” admission about Mercedes

George Russell says Mercedes are “getting slower” as F1 weekends develop following another disappointing performance at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Russell made an encouraging start to the weekend as he took fourth and second in Thursday’s practice sessions, but Mercedes’ competitiveness fell away as the weekend drew on.

The 26-year-old Briton only qualified seventh, with teammate Lewis Hamilton eighth, and went on to finish sixth in Saturday’s race as Mercedes were outperformed by customer teams McLaren and Aston Martin.

After a similar showing in the opening two rounds, Russell believes Mercedes are “getting slower” across the sessions, rather than rival teams improving.

“We're still really trying to understand this car because we have shown true performance at points over the last two weekends,” Russell said.

“FP1, straight out of the box, we were top of the timesheets and always in the top three. FP2, P2. Then, both weekends, the pace just falling away from us.

“That hasn't been our competitors getting faster; that's been us getting slower. So, we need to understand why that is. But it's fine margins now.

“It’s so close with ourselves, McLaren, Aston. Charles [Leclerc, Ferrari] is just a smidge ahead. We just need to tap into it a bit more.”

Hamilton called on Mercedes to make “big changes” to their W15 challenger after being left frustrated by a return of previous bouncing issues and a general lack of performance in high-speed corners.

"The car is relatively good in the low speed and not so bad in the medium [speed], but in the high-speed we are miles off," Hamilton said. 

"It was like I was in a different category when I was going through the high-speed between the other guys around me.

"It's frustrating for sure to be in three years in a row in almost the same position. It's definitely tough but we will get our heads down and keep working away, and I know everyone back at the factory is pushing as hard as they can."

Russell suspects there is a wider explanation to Mercedes' current lack of competitiveness. 

“I think there's more to it. It's so complex these days. These cars are so complicated,” he said. 

“When you couple that with the tyres, the tyres are very difficult as well. Right now, I don't have the answers.”