George Russell has explained how he is "praying" that the bad luck which has destroyed his season ends soon, as he revealed the outcome of an investigation.
Russell's faint title hopes finally came to an end in Mexico City, where Kimi Antonelli claimed the crown - but the Briton suffered yet another issue at the start of the race.
From second on the grid, a deployment issue on the run to Turn 1 limited his top-speed as he fell to sixth - and then was swamped by others and could not make forward progress.
He also earned a 10-second time penalty for colliding with Isack Hadjar, before quickly leaving the circuit and not being a part of the post-race celebrations.
Looking ahead to the Sao Paulo GP weekend, Russell, who finished fifth and fourth in the two Friday practice sessions, declared that he had no expectations for the weekend, but was "praying" the issues outside of his control would soon end.
"Do I come in with high expectations? Honestly, no, to be honest, but I’m looking forward to next year for sure, and we’ll just continue to work on the things that I can control, and pray the things outside of my control sort themselves out," Russell told media, including RacingNews365.
Turning to the few days between Mexico and Brazil, Russell revealed that he had a deep-dive with his engineering team, as they found that they had only had six trouble-free weekends all season.
“Post-Mexico, I was just more disappointed with how the race unfolded," he said.
"It felt like a good opportunity to fight for the victory. Starting P2 in Mexico is always a great chance to go for the lead at Turn 1, and then just another race with something outside of your control [happening] was very difficult to accept.
"I went through every race this season with my engineers, and we’ve only had six races this season where we had no issue.
"So, in 14 of those races we’ve had things that have been what we thought was bad luck, but we need to start questioning things more deeply when it’s happening so often, and especially on our side, so that was the main feeling for me."
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes, Samuel Coop and Nick Golding as they look back on Mexico City but also look ahead to this weekend's São Paulo Grand Prix! Kimi Antonelli become world champion is a lead discussion, as is the latest Ferrari drama!
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