George Russell “fortunate to complete P7” at Imola GP in “lifeless sluggish” Mercedes

George Russell delivered a damning evaluation of his Mercedes workforce’s efficiency within the F1 Imola Grand Prix – saying they have been “lifeless sluggish” and fortunate to complete as excessive as they did.

Russell got here house in seventh place whereas his team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli retired from the race, because the workforce battled towards rising temperatures.

Russell says the warmth is inflicting him and Mercedes a headache as they’ve poor efficiency when the temperatures go up – an issue stretching again to final 12 months that the workforce has been unable to unravel.

When requested if it was simply an unlucky weekend through which he failed to attain respectable factors, Russell advised Sky Sports activities F1: “No, we have been positively not [with] dangerous luck, we have been simply lifeless sluggish.

“I imply the traits are fairly clear, when it is sizzling we’re sluggish, when it is chilly we’re fast, and that was the identical final 12 months. We have been doing every thing with the set-up to attempt to discover options, however there’s clearly one thing extra basic within the automobile.

“It is not the primary race of the season the place we have been slower than Ferrari, and even slower than Williams, or the identical tempo as Williams, however we have simply by some means managed to get a outcome out of it on these events. However in the present day, we have been very fortunate to complete P7, in all honesty.”

Russell says he recognized the issue on his reconnaissance lap to the grid for the beginning and reported the problem to his engineers, however they might not detect the supply of what should be blamed for him to really feel uncomfortable with the automobile.

He added: “It was very odd. I imply on the laps to the grid I used to be reporting issues with the automobile and I believed one thing was improper. The workforce had an excellent go searching and noticed nothing and that feeling continued for 60-odd laps after.

“We do have a little bit of a basic [issue] as a result of both the fronts are overheating, or the rears are overheating, circuit to circuit. But it surely’s not the primary time we have reported that. So it was most likely simply the primary time the place all of our rivals most likely had a semi-decent race.”