Mercedes went home on Sunday after failing to step onto the podium yet again at the Italian Grand Prix. While many expected them to be on an upward trajectory after their victory at the Belgian Grand Prix, their performance at Zandvoort and Monza turned out to be mediocre at best.
George Russell, in particular, failed to capitalise on his starting position this weekend. Lining up in third on the grid, he ended up falling back to finish in seventh place as Ferrari secured an unexpected victory on their home turf.
In the post-race media session, Russell addressed the incident at the start that resulted in him losing several positions and sustaining considerable damage. While his encounter with Piastri squashed his hopes of securing a big haul of points, the Brit added that Mercedes didn’t have the pace to challenge the McLarens and the Ferraris either way.
“I just got caught out by Oscar’s braking point. I touched the brakes, started locking up because I was so close to him, and I had to take avoidant action. It’s quite upsetting when your whole weekend goes away from you so quick.
“But looking at the pace afterwards, I don’t think we would have been able to keep up with the McLarens and Ferrari.”
With regard to the question of how tricky it was to drive with a damaged wing, Russell confirmed that it cost him a substantial amount of performance. Being forced to pit very early on lap 8, he also endured a slow stop because of the wing change.
“It lost a huge amount of performance. It’s stint one, so we had to pit at lap 8. Obviously we changed the wing, slow stop. It was a really disappointing day but ultimately we didn’t have the pace.”
The 26-year-old then commented on how difficult it has been lately to predict the performance of the top teams, heading into a race weekend. He elaborated on his statement by referring to the massive drop in performance that Red Bull has experienced recently. He also mentioned Ferrari in this regard—how they had struggled in qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix and the races prior but managed to bring home excellent results on Sunday at Zandvoort and Monza.
“The sport is a bit strange at the moment with how Red Bull have lost so much pace. Ferrari seemed to be struggling in Zandvoort and all the races prior. But then they were so quick on Sunday in Zandvoort and this whole weekend.”
In a humorous manner, Russell was also asked whether he found his experience of battling Sergio Perez for seventh place to be fun. He dismissed that assumption and answered that Perez leaving him no space was extremely stressful since he was very close to being airborne while driving at 340 km/h. Nonetheless, the two-time race winner was content with gaining a position despite the risks associated with hard racing.
“I mean, fun? I’m not sure you can describe that fun. I thought I was about to go airborne when he was squeezing me at 340. Yeah, hard racing and at least glad to make it one more position.”
When asked to clarify if he found Perez’s defence over the top, Russell stated that it was right at the limit. He also confirmed that there would be no further discussions with the Red Bull driver on that matter since they managed to avoid a crash and he made the overtake stick. However, he added that if Perez had moved closer by 0.5 cm, his race would’ve ended at that very moment.
“It was right at the very, very limit. No, there’s nothing to say. We didn’t crash at the end of the day and I got past him. Half a centimetre more and it would have been a different story.”
