RUSSELL explained Mercedes’ failure in F1: ‘Everything depends on it’

Mercedes driver George Russell has admitted he cannot explain exactly where his team falls behind Red Bull and McLaren in the ground effect era in Formula 1.

The last four seasons have been difficult for the eight-time Constructors’ Championship team, with misguided developments, discredited concepts and a lack of mastery of the new rules.

While it was important to understand the rules and delicate balance between traditional aerodynamics and the car’s interaction with the underbody, this proved to be much more difficult to implement on the track, and Mercedes fell behind in this component.

The Brackley team has not challenged for the title since the start of 2022, achieving their final results of the 2025 season with third, second, fourth and second.

One of the main reasons for Mercedes’ problems was the completely different philosophy of the car at the start of the new rules in 2022; A concept without traditional side pontoons. Although other teams also considered this approach, they quickly gave up on it; Toto Wolff’s team spent more than a year making this work.

“I think it probably depends on where we start,” Russell explained.

“We probably started in the wrong place, went down the wrong path and then had to turn back.”

The driver also noted that Red Bull had a significant advantage at the start of the regulations.

“Obviously, Red Bull had the least amount of problems with dolphin hunting in 2022 and was actually six or even eight months ahead of everyone else as we tried to resolve this issue.”

“So I don’t think this regulation will have any impact on the next regulation because the issues will be completely different.”