Russell: Brazil “our weakest race of the year” 12 months on from “our strongest”

Russell failed to make the chequered flag at Interlagos after concerns over his engine.

Up until then, Russell was on course to finish a disappointing ninth, and would have likely been overtaken by Yuki Tsunoda for tenth had he not retired.

It capped off a miserable day for Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton could only manage eighth.

“Clearly we got something wrong this weekend, still we’re not too sure what that is as yet, but the pace just hasn’t been there,” Russell said. 

“We thought yesterday may have been a one off, but clearly it wasn’t, so we need to regroup and try to understand it because 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.”

Assessing Mercedes’ performance, Russell conceded “something doesn’t add up” with the team ending Brazil as the sixth-fastest team.

“The car was just slow this weekend. The tyres were sliding around and I think what we were doing was the maximum,” he added.

“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. 

“We really need to sit down and understand, but clearly a massive one off this week.”