George Russell says he has been "knocked down" but will "get back up" after the latest setbacks to his world championship challenge at the Belgian Grand Prix

Having cut his title deficit to Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli from 68 points to just 25 points over the previous three rounds, benefitting from two reliability problems on the Italian's car, Russell dropped 50 points behind on Sunday at Spa-Francorchamps when his race lasted just five corners before a collision with Lewis Hamilton.

But Russell's post-race frustration at his early exit, and difficult race weekend as a whole, was aimed not at his former team-mate but instead towards weekend-long power issues on his Mercedes car that he said had left him vulnerable to such an incident on the first lap.

The Briton has been searching for stronger form for several months amid a failure to match Antonelli's pace on a consistent basis but, in a social media post on Monday, he resolved to keep fighting on in the championship chase.

"Knocked down, we get back up," Russell wrote.

"No matter how many times.

"So many tough moments this year but I will not stop fighting,"

Wolff explains Russell's power problems

While Mercedes are still working to get to the bottom of the mysterious straight-line speed issues afflicting Russell's car, team principal Toto Wolff explained after Sunday's race how two separate problems contributed to the Briton's difficult weekend.

On the first deployment issue in the sessions before race day - which Russell had initially hoped would be corrected by driving style changes but was not the case - Wolff said this had compromised the Briton's speed in the final sector of the long Spa-Francorchamps lap relative to Antonelli.

"The power units are so complex, in the way you harvest, the way you deploy, the interaction from the driver," said Wolff of 2026's new engines which feature a near 50-50 split between electrical and traditional internal combustion output.

"We have a super strong package - championship-winning chassis and power unit, but we're still trying to give it our best to fix the reliability issue.

"And sometimes a new regulation (irregularity) happens. With George, over the weekend, there was definitely something on the engine that we have identified that meant he only had less energy to deploy into Turn 18 - that was the most visible.

"It's good that we spotted it here because in Budapest, which is not energy starved, it would have been more difficult to identify.

"But it still doesn't make it better for him. And that probably accounted for half the gap or a little bit more that he had to Kimi."

All eight of the grid's Mercedes-powered cars were then hampered by a separate and "new" boost problem out of Turn One at the start of Sunday's race.

Andrew Shovlin, the team's trackside engineering, said Russell's had been "more extreme" and meant he was an effective sitting duck on the Kemmel Straight as the two Ferraris moved past him, with Russell eventually spinning into instant retirement in the Les Combes braking zone after contact with Hamilton, whose Ferrari understeered into the Mercedes.

Wolff added: "All Mercedes engines had a lack of energy out of Turn One, so that wasn't only George. It affected him more than Kimi, but also Kimi had that issue to a certain degree.

"And that meant that he didn't come out at the end of the straight in P3, but P5. So, he lost his two positions, and then obviously the accident with Lewis."

'He's got to get an answer' - what now for Russell heading to Hungary?

Speaking during Sky Sports F1's post-race show in Belgium, Karun Chandhok suggested that Russell would want concrete engineering explanations before this weekend's race in Hungary as to what exactly was causing the confusing straight-line speed problems.

"I think he's got to go back and try to get clear answers from an engineering sense," said Chandhok.

"We've all had conversations this weekend with people from Mercedes, and the sense we're getting is that they don't have a clear answer.

"They've got to go back, they've got to look at the data, have a couple of days to digest it between now and Budapest, because he can't go on to the next race weekend with a four-tenth deficit in straight-line speed.

"You're taking a pencil to a sword fight, so there's no point doing that. He's got to get an answer, and if it means they have to change the power unit and take a penalty, then maybe they have to do that to try to clear away this doubt.

"Because as a racing driver, arriving at a weekend having doubt in the package or the car you've got and whether you've got a fair fight, is an awful place to be. He will be looking for clear engineering-led answers, I think."

Russell said in interviews after the race that, having also run into technical issues earlier in the season most notably in China and, when leading, in Canada, he was now "numb to the disappointment".

Asked how he could keep his driver's spirits up, Wolff said: "You have to understand that the driver is very emotional when these situations happen. But on the other side, as a Formula 1 driver, you're part of a very elite group.

"I think it's quite an honour to drive a Mercedes. Sometimes we let ourselves down. And it's just the driver, but it's also us.

"It's valuable constructor points that we lose in our fight against Ferrari. So, I hope the numb feeling goes away. We will try to help to recreate optimism and positivity."

Wolff, who has known the 28-year-old Russell for over a decade, added: "I think all of the drivers, at least the ones that I have worked with, when they have difficult spells, and it happens to any sports person, you need to find a way of motivating or building up.

"George has his way, and I'm definitely trying to do that. I've known him for such a long time, I understand the frustrations, and the team is 100 per cent there."

Formula 1 heads straight to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix with every session live on Sky Sports F1 from this Friday. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime

read more