Beyond disappointment
There really seems to be no end to the bad luck for George Russell. Also in Hungary, the Mercedes Englishman, who has now dropped to 59 points behind the leader in the championship, was a victim of technical problems. Russell started from sixth position on the grid but his car went into anti-stall at the start, causing him to drop to 19th position at the end of the first lap. The Englishman made his way through with overtakes, but could not climb higher than seventh position under the checkered flag, thus losing more points not only to Antonelli but to all other title contenders. Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, sympathized with Russell, attributing full responsibility for the problems facing #63 to the team.
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Russell, for his part, however, seems to have now raised the white flag: “I have now passed the stage of disappointment – the Englishman told journalists present in Hungary – if I continue to be disappointed by everything that happens, I will be disappointed every day of the week – he quipped – I have to stay positive. My pace was as good as anyone else’s on track and I hadn’t been able to achieve that for two or three races, so I’ll take the positives, but the list of things that have gone wrong this season is incredible.”
More power unit problems?
Russell then tried to explain what happened on the grid, when his W17 did not respond to commands: “I was accelerating, keeping the revs high, and four seconds before the lights went out, the engine started revving extremely high, without responding to the accelerator. It’s a brand new engine. I have no idea [what happened] – Russell confessed – problems happen to me, but the whole team is experiencing them, so they are as angry as I am. We are not the only ones, but it seems to happen much more often to me than to others. I hope the situation improves. I don’t wish bad luck on anyone, but I have never had a season like this in my entire career“.
“I can’t be disappointed by things that are not up to me – Russell then concluded – I usually don’t feel the need for a break, but this year I definitely feel the need for one”. It’s hard to disagree with him.
