George Russell’s latest F1 woes explained after “too many” Mercedes mistakes

George Russell was left to rue more bad luck after his Mercedes Formula 1 car suffered an anti-stall at the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix. 

Russell lined up sixth on the grid after a challenging qualifying session but immediately dropped to the rear of the field when his Mercedes W17 bogged down when the lights went out. 

The 28-year-old Briton fought back to finish seventh, but after losing yet more ground to Mercedes team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the championship, Russell was left cursing his misfortune. 

“I was on the throttle holding the revs, then all of a sudden before the lights went out, the engine just started revving all over the place,” Russell explained to reporters after the race in Budapest. 

“I was reacting with my throttle and it was doing nothing. So it wasn’t reacting to the throttle.”

Asked if he has ever experienced the issue before, Russell replied: “No. It was obviously a brand new engine. I think it was something we saw in pre-season at some points. But no idea.”

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was left hugely frustrated by Russell’s latest slice of bad luck, and admitted the Silver Arrows are letting its driver down. 

"Another problem that happened to George,” Wolff said. “It looks like that he gave about 10% throttle and the whole thing revved maximum. 

“He went off the throttle and it bogged down, so I'm really not happy about too many mistakes that happened. So that was the reason. 

"And then he drove very well. He went through the traffic easy, and then recovered I think the maximum points that he could have recovered.”

Russell claimed he is beyond “disappointment” at how his 2026 season is panning out. 

“I'm sort of past the point of disappointment now, because if I'm continuing to be disappointed with everything that goes on, I'll just be disappointed every day of the week,” he said. 

“So, it's sort of like, I've got to stay positive. Another sort of technical issue that completely ruined the race, but the pace and positives, the pace was very strong.

“The team said it was as strong as anybody out there, which I haven't been there for probably two or three races now, or three races. So, I'll take positives there, but yes, it's just unbelievable the list of things that's happened this season.”