F1 News: George Russell Reflects On Shocking Brazilian GP Retirement - "Weakest Race Of The Year"
George Russell suffered a retirement due to overheating during the Brazilian Grand Prix, a year on from securing his first and only Formula One win.
- Mercedes faced an uncharacteristic performance downturn at the Sao Paulo GP, with George Russell retiring due to overheating and reflecting on the team's lack of pace compared to their strong performance in the previous year.
- Russell emphasised the need for the team to regroup and investigate the reasons behind their sudden loss of performance, as they went from competing for podiums to merely struggling for points.
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Russell was candid in his assessment of the weekend. Speaking after his retirement, he reflected on the stark contrast between this year's Brazilian GP and the last.
"Clearly we got something wrong this weekend, still we’re not too sure what that is as yet, but the pace just hadn’t been there.
"We thought yesterday may have been a one off, but clearly it wasn’t, so we need to regroup and try to understand it."
The hopes that Saturday's performance might have been an outlier were dashed as the Silver Arrows struggled to make an impact in the race.
It was a year ago at this very track that Mercedes demonstrated their prowess, with a commanding performance that was heralded as a highlight of their season. Yet, this weekend they faced a starkly different reality.
"12 months ago this was our strongest race of the year, 12 months later it’s by far our weakest race of the year, so very strange."
The performance issues weren't for lack of effort. Russell stressed that the team was pushing to the limits of their capabilities.
"The car was just slow this weekend. The tyres were sliding around and I think what we were doing was the maximum," he said.
"Something doesn’t quite add up, you just don’t suddenly lose a second’s worth of performance and go from a podium fighting car to just fighting for points," Russell concluded, hinting at an underlying issue that had yet to be identified.
As the team looks to move forward, the focus will undoubtedly be on dissecting this weekend's performance. "We really need to sit down and understand, but clearly a massive one off this week," Russell noted.