Russell perplexed at Silverstone: "I lose all my speed on the straights"

Having been outpaced by Ferrari in qualifying for the British Grand Prix, George Russell believes he is losing most of his time on the straights of the Silverstone circuit.

In addition to being overtaken by the Classic Ferrari for sale de Charles Leclerc et Lewis HamiltonGeorge Russell has to contend with another pole position for his teammate Kimi Antonelli, who edged him out by three tenths in Q3. Having already been beaten in Friday's sprint qualifying, Russell was able to analyze in detail with his engineers where he was losing time to Antonelli.

“I was puzzled [by his pace] after Friday’s qualifying, but after analyzing the data, we realized I was losing all my speed on the straight. On Friday, we lost a few tenths on the straight. We thought we had identified the problem on Saturday morning, but it turned out to be a misinterpretation.”

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• 14/07/2026
• 15:25

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While a difference in the setup of the two Silver Arrows could explain such a gap, what worries George Russell, currently second in the world championship, more is that his deficit is present not only against Antonelli… but also against the other cars powered by Mercedes Benz (McLaren, Williams et AlpineThis raises questions about the real cause of the lack of top speed.

“It’s the same thing again, if you look at the speed records. [I’m] 6 km/h slower in the last sector, and 3 km/h slower in the middle sector. This doesn’t just affect Kimi, but all the cars with a Mercedes engine. We don’t know what’s going on. The team is working flat out to understand what’s happening. It’s definitely a bit frustrating.”

Under these conditions, it's difficult for number 63 to envision a smooth race this Sunday (starting at 16 p.m.), especially since in the Sprint, a good start to the race turned into a more challenging second half, with Russell ultimately finishing just off the podium, behind Lando Norris : "This worries me for tomorrow, because at the moment we don't know what the problem is or how we're going to solve it.", did he declare.

“[But] the team will do everything possible to see if there is anything we can change or to determine what the cause of the problem might be.”