George Russell plots Mercedes investigation as fresh details emerge over Hungary issue

George Russell says he and Mercedes will "look at ourselves" to ensure they are not self-inflicting the multitude of problems affecting him, as the team shared fresh insight into what happened in Hungary.

In the final race before F1's summer break, Russell started sixth, but his W17 machine went into anti-stall off the line, as he bogged down and dropped to 21st and last, with Sergio Perez starting in the pit-lane.

He eventually recovered to take seventh and earn six points, as team-mate Kimi Antonelli finished third and extended his points lead over the Briton to 59, with it being just 25 coming out of the British Grand Prix before the Belgian and Hungarian double-header.

In Spa, Russell complained of a serious straight-line speed issue with his car, which the team traced back to a calibration issue, as the cause of the Hungary launch incident has been identified. 

"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,” deputy team principal Bradley Lord explained.

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

Speaking before the cause of the Hungary start issue had been identified, Russell described how he would work with his engineers to determine whether anything they were doing was inadvertently contributing to the issues. 

"Obviously, the problems are happening, but the whole team feels it as well, so they're as pissed off as I am with how it's unfolded," Russell told media, including RacingNews365, when asked about how he could rally his side of the garage after the summer break. 

"We need to look at ourselves to ensure it is nothing we're doing wrong that is contributing to these errors.

"It is not like we're the only one, but it just feels like it is happening substantially more to me than others, and hopefully it swings around. I don't wish bad luck on anyone, but I've never had a season like this in my career, let alone my F1 career."

When then asked how he could avoid a "negative spiral", Russell spoke of controlling only what he could control.

"Don't be disappointed with things outside of your control," he said.

"[In Hungary], the race was totally ruined. I did my procedure right at the start, the pace was fine, but the result was s**t, but the things that I could have controlled were okay. 

"I usually don't feel like I need a break, but this year, I definitely feel like I need one."