George Russell thinks the panic over Mercedes’ failed F1 upgrades is completely wrong

When the Mercedes announced they were actively splitting their aerodynamic packages for the Singapore Grand Prix, the paddock assumed it was a desperate, reactionary measure to salvage their championship lead. With Andrea Kimi Antonelli continuing to run the controversial new updates and George Russell reverting to an older specification, the move looked like a factory in total panic.

But Russell has officially shut down that narrative. During his media availability at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, the British driver revealed that abandoning the new package wasn’t a sudden emergency decision, it was actually his idea.

A decision taken before the race

According to the Briton, he was already lobbying the Mercedes pitwall to ditch the new components long before his power unit catastrophically failed during the closing laps of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

“Well, actually, I instigated the conversation prior to the race on Sunday,” George Russell confirmed. 

George Russell, Mercedes

Because the driver was already facing a massive, mandatory engine penalty for the upcoming Singapore Grand Prix, sacrificing his ultimate aerodynamic ceiling to run a baseline set-up test became an incredibly easy strategic call for the team.

“So when the failure happened, it was kind of a no-brainer because we were kind of 50/50 about it pre-race,” George Russell explained. “And I was more in favour to do it, and I was even pre-race, whereas now it just, yeah, it is a total no-brainer”.

Overblown upgrade fears

Despite the massive pace drop in Sepang, Russell adamantly denies that the team’s highly anticipated aerodynamic upgrades are fundamentally broken. Instead, he believes the 2026 ground-effect cars are simply hyper-sensitive to track characteristics.

“However, there’s no signs telling us the upgrade was not working and we know, you know, the car we had in Baku was the same car as we had in Budapest and Zandvoort,” George Russell noted, pointing out the wild performance swings of the older machinery. “And Baku we were on pole by eight tenths and in Budapest, you know, we were four tenths off the pace.” 

Because a completely unchanged car can naturally fluctuate by over a full second depending on the circuit layout, the British driver is fully convinced that the brutal Sepang asphalt is entirely to blame for the lack of pace.

George Russell, Mercedes

“So we’re pretty confident it’s a Malaysia specific,” George Russell stated. 

Furthermore, he argued that the entire grid order was artificially jumbled by the track surface. He noted that Red Bull Racing clearly overperformed compared to its previous 2026 baseline, while Mercedes remained relatively close to their closest championship rivals. 

“And actually, when you look at our pace compared to McLaren and Ferrari, you know, it wasn’t too dissimilar, it wasn’t like massively out of bed,” George Russell concluded. 

Ultimately, stepping back to the older specification isn’t a massive punishment for the British driver. The fallback set-up is the exact same aerodynamic package he used to secure a dominant victory on the streets of Baku just weeks prior.
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