George Russell facing 'serious issue' as puzzling Mercedes problem worsens

George Russell believes a "serious issue" is now at play with his Mercedes F1 car after a big defeat to Kimi Antonelli in Belgian GP qualifying.

Russell was fourth quickest at Spa with Antonelli on pole, some 0.508s clear of the sister W17, with Russell set to be promoted to third after Lando Norris's grid penalty. 

Last time out at Silverstone, Russell complained of a straight-line speed issue with his car throughout the weekend, which he and the team thought could be related to his driving style, but after investigations, this has been disproved.

Speaking at length, and in detail after qualifying, Russell broke down how he has spent the last "36 hours" focused on solving the puzzling straight-line speed issue, and how the team came to the conclusion that a "serious issue is at play."

"It could be worse, it could be much better," Russell began to media, including RacingNews365.

"On Friday, I was losing eight-tenths on the straights, and today, I was losing four-tenths, so it is a step in the right direction, but we saw this in Silverstone.

"We thought we found the problem; we thought it was something with the brakes, it wasn't the brakes. Then we thought it was my driving style, with the throttle. I convinced myself it was something in me with the driving style, and now we are very confident that it is not the driving style, and that there is a serious issue at play here.

"The team are working so hard to resolve it, but every lap I do, when I see I am down anywhere from two-tenths to six-tenths in the straights, it is pretty infuriating.

"I felt very happy and content with my lap, but my whole focus for the last 36 hours has been on straight-line speed. It hasn't been on the set-up or tyres or anything because we're all trying to solve what is going on, and even on my last lap, I lost another tenth-and-a-half to myself just on the straight.

"When you're watching on your steering wheel, losing speed when you're full gas on the straight, you feel powerless, so we don't know what is going on. I don't think it is the power unit, but there is something slowing us down on the straights.

"It is tempting [to try and make up for it in the corners], but my engineer has done a really good job of highlighting where I am losing, and when I cross the line, you see you're half-a-second down, you feel pretty rubbish.

"But when you realise more than 75% of it is coming from the power unit, you feel a bit better, and I was pleased with my lap. 

"When I look at the corners, and there are a lot of corners, I was faster [than Antonelli], and there are definitely corners I need to improve, but the corners look like a normal fight you would have for pole; the straights are not. 

"I don't know what the solution is, but I am praying ahead of Budapest."