George Russell issues alarming Mercedes 'midfield' warning

George Russell has noted a worrying slide towards the midfield from Mercedes over recent rounds, having started the current F1 season in fine form.

The British driver lamented the "big step backwards" the eight-time constructors' champion has taken since he secured four podium finishes in the opening six weekends of the current campaign.

In the following six, only his impressive victory at the Canadian Grand Prix - which saw team-mate Kimi Antonelli clinch a maiden podium finish as well - has yielded further trips to the rostrum for the Brackley-based squad.

The team has been engulfed by frenzied speculation over the future of its two drivers, with Max Verstappen closely linked to one of its two seats.

However, it increasingly looks like both Russell and Antonelli will stay put for 2026, despite the Dutchman looming large past that point.

Nonetheless, Mercedes will need to improve the W16's form if it is to entice the four-time F1 drivers' champion away from Red Bull.

In the meantime, it is a cause for concern for Russell, who highlighted how poor the team's weekend at Spa-Francorchamps has been.

After qualifying P13 for the sprint, which was ultimately pointless for the team, the 27-year-old will line up sixth for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Antonelli has endured another difficult weekend amid his torrid run of results, being knocked out of SQ1 and Q1.

"My laps felt really strong, but clearly, as a team, we're off the pace this weekend," Russell told media, including RacingNews365.

"Other than yesterday, this is my worst qualifying of the year. Same for Kimi [Antonelli], so we need to understand what's going on."

When asked whether the team made changes between the sprint and qualifying proper, the four-time grand prix winner highlighted the larger issue for the team to tackle.

"Yeah, we did," Russell explained. "We made some small changes, but there's obviously only so much you can do.

"Historically, on sprint race weekends, if you have a bad sprint, if you turn the car upside down for the next day, it rarely works.

"So we made some sensible changes, but we just need to understand the first six races of the year, we had four podiums. Now we've had one in the last six. And clearly, we've taken a big step backwards towards the midfield."