George Russell has stated Mercedes' performance at the Belgian Grand Prix was its worst of the season to date.
Russell ended the race in fifth place, over half a minute down on race-winner Oscar Piastri.
Team-mate Kimi Antonelli endured an even tougher time as he had to settle for 16th on the road after a challenging qualifying session on Saturday.
With a difficult weekend in the books, Russell has stated Mercedes will conduct a meeting to discover why its form has been ticking downward at recent events.
“Maximum in terms of the finishing result, very underwhelming in terms of the performance,” Russell assessed to media including RacingNews365.
“We need to really understand what is going on and why we've taken such a step backwards.
“These conditions today, you would argue, were ideal for us in our car.
“Once again, it's been the worst performance of the season.
“We’re going to have a big sit-down this week and try to figure it out.”
Russell suggested the front wing regulation change that was enforced from Barcelona and the development route Mercedes has taken with it has hurt the team.
“We had the change with the front wing in Barcelona,” Russell said.
“We then went in a slightly different direction afterwards to tackle the issue of the change of front wing.
“Clearly since that point, we've taken a big step backwards. It could be as simple as just reverting back to something that we had earlier in the season.
“Of course, we can’t do that with the front wing, but in terms of the rest of the setup. It seems quite strange how we've gone so far backwards.”
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