Russell: Mercedes' performance at Saudi Grand Prix “Underwhelming"

Despite a relatively strong race, Russell stated that it was where he “deserved to finish” and that the team had an “underwhelming” performance due to overheating tires.

Despite a strong start in P3, Russell struggled over the 50-lap race and was unable to match the performance of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri from McLaren, who finished the race second and first, respectively. The medium compound tires appeared to serve these two drivers better during their opening stints on the track.

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Russell tried to stay ahead in the race, having switched to the hard compound tire after his first pit stop, trying to close the gap to the two front drivers, but he soon lost performance and started dropping back. He was first passed by Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), and McLaren’s Lando Norris also overtook him towards the end of the race.

This raised concerns from Russell, who asked over the radio whether his front-left tire would make it to the end of the race, with only two laps to go. He commented that there was an obvious band appearing on the tire, showing high tire wear, however his engineer reported back that the team was not concerned about the tire performance.

Speaking at post-race media interviews, Russell said, “A real surprise, really struggling with tire overheating. I was holding on to the front two at the beginning, just by a thread, and then the second stint I was pushing so hard to stay with them and suddenly my tires got way too hot and I dropped off the cliff.

"I was losing a second per lap in the last seven, eight laps.” Speaking of his final position, he said, “P5 is where we deserve to finish, but the performance was pretty underwhelming today," added the Mercedes driver.

Despite this loss, Russell continues to perform impressively during the 2025 Formula 1 season. He has finished fifth or higher in all five races thus far, and the team is looking strong, with rookie driver Antonelli already breaking Formula 1 records.

Despite the underwhelming performance in Jeddah, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believes that George Russell one of the top three drivers on the grid, with the potential to rise to number one.

When Lewis Hamilton departed the team to join Ferrari last year, there was a lot of noise about how Mercedes would perform during the 2025 season, especially with a rookie driver joining the team. However, the Silver Arrows have been outperforming Ferrari, and are currently second in the Constructor standings, ahead of both Red Bull and Ferrari.

Toto Wolff went as far as to say that Russell gave a “10 out of 10” performance during the Chinese Grand Prix when he stood on the third step of the podium. Wolff continued that he never gives a 10 out of 10 since “there is never a perfect race,” but that Russell extracted everything he could from the car.