George Russell details fate of engine after Silverstone retirement

Mercedes were able to save George Russell’s engine despite his retirement at Silverstone, he has revealed.

A suspected water system issue was cited as the cause for the early conclusion to Russell’s F1 British Grand Prix last time out.

"I had alarms on my steering wheel for some sort of water cooling failure,” was his immediate reaction to Sky Sports.

Ahead of this weekend’s F1 Hungarian Grand Prix, where Crash.net are in the paddock, Russell has detailed the fallout of the incident.

He confirmed his engine was not compromised, saying: “Fortunately the engine’s been saved and we’ll be using that.

“I think we’ll be using the same engine this weekend to be honest. But yeah, it was just a water leak, the engine wasn’t getting enough water.

“The team recognised it from the second or third lap of the race that the temperatures were just getting hotter and hotter and we were losing power.

“So yeah, it was a real shame, but as Lewis said, we’re in a great place right now and we’re going to be fighting again and I’m confident we’ll have the opportunity once more.”

Mercedes arrive in Hungary having won the past two F1 grands prix, through Russell in Austria then Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone.

Over the past four rounds, Mercedes have scored the most points of any team.

“It’s really exciting for all of us,” Russell said of their long-awaited turnaround.

“If you told us at the start of the year we’d be going into Hungary fighting for three wins in a row, we wouldn’t have believed it.

“We’ve led the last four races since the upgrades, which is an incredible turnaround for us. Everybody’s super motivated.

“There’s no guarantees going into the next two race weekends. I think from these last four, we’ve had, without a doubt, the quickest car in qualifying in two of them, and the quickest car in the race in two of them.

“But still, in Austria and Barcelona, we were a good 10 to 20 seconds behind Max and Lando, so we need to see where we fall out this weekend. But, yeah, we’re super excited for what’s to come.”

'Max has still won two of those races...'

The previous dominance of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has dimmed, although he retains a lengthy lead at the summit of the F1 championship.

But F1 is currently more competitive than it has been since Verstappen’s dominance started.

Both Mercedes drivers, both Ferraris and McLaren’s Lando Norris have each won a grand prix this year.

“Max is a long way out in front, and Lando’s in a pretty solid P2,” Russell said about the competitive championship.

“But I think the goal for us for the rest of the year is just to try and win as many more races as possible.

“Of course, we’ve closed this gap massively. We’ve had two really great races in the last four. But still, when you look at it, Max has still won two of those races, finished second in another, should have finished second in Austria.

“It’s not been a bad run of form for those guys either, so we’re no doubt closer than ever. We just need to see this race weekend, and in Spa, I think if we have two good race weekends here, we’ll be fast everywhere.”

Russell identified the keys to Mercedes’ rebirth: “We brought a reasonable sized upgrade to Montreal, but nowhere near the size that it translated to in terms of lap time.

“And I think the way the car is handling now, we both have much more confidence in the car, we can push it closer to its limit.

“Now the tyres are feeling better when we drive in the race, we can manage the tyres easier on it.

“It just has a bit of a snowball effect in terms of its performance, so this small upgrade has turned into something quite large in terms of lap time, because we can exploit the car more and that’s the biggest thing, having that confidence beneath us.”

He added: “The biggest takeaway is we stayed as one as a team. Everybody stuck together.

“There’s been no major changes within the organisation of Mercedes. You’ve got to give credit to Toto for believing in his people and just giving them a chance to do what they do best.

“I think that’s something that sets this team apart from many others. So far, it seems like we’ve done a really great job of that, so we’re just hoping to continue on this journey.”