Mercedes have shared some more insight into George Russell’s disastrous start at the Hungarian Grand Prix, explaining how he was left with “much too little throttle” when the red lights went out “through no fault of his own”.
Russell started Sunday’s race at the Hungaroring from sixth position, having gained a spot via team mate Kimi Antonelli’s grid penalty, but his hopes of making an impression on the cars ahead were dashed almost immediately.
Indeed, Russell was seen tumbling down the order when the race got under way, from that top-six position all the way back to 21st, ahead of only pit lane-starter Sergio Perez, with his car having gone into anti-stall.
A couple of days after the event, Mercedes Deputy Team Principal Bradley Lord provided an update on what happened in the team’s post-race debrief video, making clear that Russell was fundamentally not to blame.
“What we all saw was that he got anti-stall off the line, and that dropped him to the back of the field. The question is why?” Lord began.
“As the drivers wait for the start, they hold what are called their wait revs, so the engine’s RPM, at a specific level. As George was doing that, the revs actually rose out of proportion to what he was asking for from the throttle.
“The revs hit the rev limiter at the maximum RPM that the engine allows at that point, and then George tried to get it back under control to optimise and control his start. He wasn’t able to do so, and as he was lifting right off the throttle to under 10% of throttle demand, the lights went out.
“He made a start with effectively much too little throttle through no fault of his own. That meant the anti-stall kicked in, so he dropped to the back of the field.”
Lord went on to praise Russell for an “incredible recovery drive”, with the Briton managing to work his way back up to seventh and salvage a handful of points – crossing the line a couple of seconds behind Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar.
“He picked the cars in front of him off one-by-one as he went through that first stint, and actually was also unlucky with the timing of the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) at the end of the race,” added Lord.
“[The VSC] came out one lap after his second stop. Had he been able to take advantage of it and get a free stop as such under the VSC, he could have finished even higher up than his eventual P7 finishing position.”
With drivers and teams heading into the summer break, Russell sits third in the championship standings on 160 points, nine behind Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, and 59 behind Antonelli.