George Russell says a power issue with his Mercedes was to blame for leaving him vulnerable to a first-lap collision with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton that took him out of the Belgian Grand Prix.
Russell started third on the grid and retained his position through the first corner but was then passed by Hamilton and left side-by-side with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri as they came to the end of the lengthy Kemmel Straight.
Russell broke late and attempted to reclaim third back around the outside of Hamilton, but the pair made contact which spun the Mercedes into the gravel and out of the race.
Despite Hamilton being given a five-second penalty by the stewards for causing the collision, Russell told Sky Sports F1 he was more frustrated with his car than his former team-mate.
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George Russell pointed to an issue with the car as a reason for his collision with Lewis Hamilton during the Belgian GP
“I just got totally swallowed up down the straight,” said Russell, who dropped 50 points behind his Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli after the championship leader won the race.
“I lost three positions down the straight down into Turn Five and then the incident was a racing incident.
“Maybe I could have gone a bit wider, maybe he (Hamilton) could have braked a bit more. The incident shouldn’t have happened if I had the speed down the straight.
“Very, very disappointed.”
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Highlights from the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix
The incident came after Russell had bemoaned a lack of power costing him in qualifying on Saturday, when he was more than half a second off pole-sitter Antonelli in fourth.
Russell has appeared confused in recent weeks as to what is causing him to generally be unable to match Antonelli’s pace.
He said on Thursday’s media day at Spa that he was working on changing his driving style as he believes that was costing him time in 2026’s new generation of cars, but on Saturday revealed that he had changed his mind and no longer thought his driving style was the issue.
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Russell discusses his recent struggles with the Mercedes car and the gap between himself and teammate Kimi Antonelli
Asked how Mercedes can get to the bottom of the issue, Russell added: “I appreciate everyone is working hard to solve the problem, but I’m stood here [in the TV interview pen] on lap five of the race.
“It felt like I was in a good position to fight for the lead up to Turn One and then, suddenly, no power and it’s all gone.”
Wolff: Issue caused all Mercedes engines to lack power on straights
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said there was an issue with all of the team’s engines that influenced power on the straights.
As well as building their own engines, Mercedes also supply McLaren, Alpine and Williams with power units.
Wolff told Sky Sports F1: “The accident that happened was unfortunate for us. We lost a lot of constructors’ points and George’s drivers’ points.
“We had an issue on all Mercedes engines that we lacked the power out on the straights. That hit him badly and it 100 per cent goes on us.
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Karun Chandhok was at the SkyPad to analyse whether Lewis Hamilton should have been awarded a five-second penalty for his collision with George Russell on the opening lap
“We are trying our best as a team. We have the most powerful power unit, a strong car that is capable of winning.
“Everyone is giving their maximum to minimise the mistakes and still it happens because we are humans at work.”
Mercedes have clearly had the fastest car over the opening 10 rounds of the season, but reliability issues have prevented them from building a points advantage to reflect their pace dominance.
Russell’s DNF on Sunday was his second following an engine failure in Canada, while Antonelli retired in Barcelona because of an engine failure and then dropped from a likely victory to out of the points at Silverstone because of a wheel-guard failure.
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Kimi Antonelli wins the Belgian Grand Prix
Wolff added: “We let Kimi down at Silverstone where George got a podium, which is maybe better than the result should have been.
“Then one DNF for Montreal, the other in Barcelona. That’s a little bit of the story of our season. It’s a technical sport, a mechanical sport.
“We came out with a product [power unit] that is so strong and I’d rather fix the reliability rather than accelerate a slow engine, or slow car.
“We are giving it 100 per cent and need to give it 100 per cent because we lost a lot of points with reliability. We should be much further ahead than we are.”
Formula 1 heads straight to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix with every session live on Sky Sports F1 from this Friday. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
