Mercedes sheds more light on George Russell’s Hungary F1 start issue

Mercedes has shed more light on the issue that led to George Russell’s car going into anti-stall and wrecking his Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Briton plummeted from sixth on the grid to the back of the pack as he struggled to get off the line.

It later emerged that he’d gone into anti-stall, forcing him into a recovery driver that saw him eventually finish seventh.

Mercedes’ Deputy team principal Bradley Lord explained in the squad’s post-race debrief that George Russell was “under 10% of throttle” at lights out as he tried to manage a rev spike.

“As the drivers wait for the start, they hold what are called their wait revs, which is holding the engine’s RPM at a specific level,” Lord said.

“As George was doing that, the revs actually rose out of proportion to what he was asking for from the throttle.

“The revs hit the rev limiter at the maximum RPM that the engine allows at that point, and then George tried to get it back under control to optimise and control his start.

“He wasn't able to do so, and as he was lifting right off the throttle to under 10% of throttle demand, the lights went out.

“And so he made a start with effectively much too little throttle through no fault of his own.

“That meant the anti-stall kicked in so he dropped to the back of the field.”

It continued a wretched run to the summer break for the 28-year-old, who retired on the opening lap of the Belgian Grand Prix after contact with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.

Lord praised Russell’s recovery drive, and believes he could have been higher up the field had the virtual safety car for a stricken Oscar Piastri been timed better.

“From there it was an incredible recovery drive,” he added.

“He picked the cars in front of him off one-by-one as he went through that first stint and actually was also unlucky with the timing of the virtual safety car at the end of the race.

“It came out one lap after his second stop.

“Had he been able to take advantage of it and get a free stop as such under the VSC, he could have finished even higher up than his eventual P7 finishing position.”

Russell is now 59 points shy of Mercedes team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who leads the standings after finishing third in Hungary.