Mercedes respond to Russell’s ‘worst performance’ claim in Belgian GP blow

Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ director of trackside engineering, has responded to George Russell’s claim that the Belgian Grand Prix was Mercedes’ worst performance of the season.

While Russell hypothesised that Barcelona’s front wing technical directive could have caused the issue, Shovlin noted that the team has changed several components of the W16 since that point, which could all contribute to the issue.

George Russell brands Belgian GP Mercedes’ “worst performance” of 2025

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

At the start of the F1 2025 season, George Russell was a dark horse for the championship following a slew of podiums in the first six races, along with a victory at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Since then, however, his performance has begun to slip, with two fifth-place finishes and a 10th-place finish to his name. It was enough to cause Russell to brand the Belgian Grand Prix as Mercedes’ “worst performance of the season,” calling for a team-wide sit-down to understand where the pace has gone.

According to Russell, it first began to slip in Barcelona, when a technical directive clamping down on flexi-wings came into effect.

He explained to media, including PlanetF1.com, “I think obviously we had the change with the front wing in Barcelona. We then went in a slightly different direction afterwards to sort of tackle the issue of the change of front wing and clearly since that point, we’ve taken a big step backwards.

“So it could be as simple as just reverting back to something that we had earlier in the season. Of course, you can’t do that with the front wing, but in terms of the rest of the setup…

“But I don’t know, it seems quite strange how we’ve gone so far backwards.

“The car isn’t feeling as nice to drive at the moment as it once did, lacking rear stability, whereas at the start of the year it was much better. I think Kimi [Antonelli] and I are collectively making more mistakes because the car is more challenging to drive.”

More tech analysis from the Belgian Grand Prix:

? Tech analysis: Red Bull throw kitchen sink at RB21 in bid to catch McLaren

? Uncovered: McLaren’s subtle change that yielded big performance gains

It’s a strong assessment — but Andrew Shovlin, trackside engineering director at Mercedes, isn’t certain that the technical directive can be wholly blamed for the change in fortunes.

“What we had early on in the year was a car that was working well at pretty much every circuit. We were generally fighting for the second row of the grid, if not the front row,” Shovlin told media, including PlanetF1.com, at the conclusion of a Grand Prix that saw Russell finish fifth with Antonelli 16th.

Shovlin doesn’t discount that the TD may have had an impact, but he’s not convinced it’s the sole culprit behind the team’s downturn — not when the team has won a race with that new wing, and certainly not when there have been a handful of other upgrades introduced since Barcelona.

“It’s probably true for anyone that the TD won’t improve stability,” Shovlin admitted.

“But we did have this wing on the car in Montreal, and it was fine.

“The fact is, other people are able to balance their cars a bit better. There’s no doubt a solution in there for us.

“But as I said, we’re just looking at all the steps that we’ve taken with the car design over the last number of races.

“It isn’t just the front wing that’s changed, and I’m sure there’s more that we can learn.

“I’d say as another point, yes, that TD on the front wing might take you in the wrong direction, but the fact is, when we’ve dropped aero balance out of the car, the instability is still there. So as I said, there’s something for us to learn.”

The goal, then, is to spend the next few races “trying to pinpoint, why are we getting this entry stability issue.”

When will updates come? When can the drivers begin expecting and improvement in stability? Shovlin was confident that it could be soon.

“It depends what extent you’re talking about, but it’s definitely possible for us to look at changing aspects of the car for Budapest,” he shared.

“How deep we go will depend on what parts we’ve got around us. And as I said, there’s quite a lot that we’ve changed.

“So we’ve got a meeting with the drivers tomorrow to go through some of what we’ve done over the year to try and make sure that our efforts are focused on the right things, not just changing things for the sake of it.”

Belgium overall was a difficult weekend for the Brackley crew.

Kimi Antonelli spun in Sprint qualifying, dragging gravel back onto the track just in front of team-mate Russell. After that session, the British driver wondered if his W16 hadn’t sustained damage as a result of that, as the car felt off.

Russell was knocked out in the next session, SQ2, leaving him 13th on the grid compared to Antonelli’s 20th. They finished the Sprint race 12th and 17th, respectively.

Though Russell was indeed able to progress to Q3 on Saturday’s Grand Prix qualifying session, he nevertheless found himself on par with the performance of Williams and Racing Bulls rather than challenging for the front two rows.

Antonelli was knocked out in Q1 yet again, for an 18th-place start that became a pit-lane start due to power unit changes.

The Hungarian Grand Prix will take place next weekend, after which F1 will depart for a month-long summer break.

Read next: Belgian GP: Piastri sees off Norris in tense McLaren strategy game after rain delay