Mercedes laments “worst performance of the season” as George Russell’s tyres ‘fell off a cliff’ 

Toto Wolff was left livid believing the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was the “worst efficiency of the 12 months to date” for Mercedes.

The Silver Arrows completed fifth (George Russell) and sixth (Andrea Kimi Antonelli) in Jeddah, because it considerably lagged behind rivals McLaren, Crimson Bull and Ferrari.

Wolff was confused as to why Mercedes lacked tempo, particularly when it has had a powerful begin to the 2025 Formulation 1 season coming into the grand prix second within the championship.

“It was clearly our worst efficiency of the 12 months to date,” the Mercedes boss stated. “The tempo simply dropped away with blistering, overheating tyres and to date we haven’t received an evidence.”

The truth that Mercedes was fast in qualifying – Russell began the grand prix in third – made the frustration deeper for Wolff.

He added: “You handle your expectations being the second quickest – and even that’s not clearly what we’d want to obtain – and you then see the race panning out prefer it did. It simply provides to the frustration of the state of affairs.”

Toto Wolff, Mercedes

Picture by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Photographs

Russell shared Wolff’s frustrations having struggled to handle his Pirelli tyres, telling Sky Sports activities F1 “they had been massively overheating”.

“I used to be pushing onerous to stick with Max initially of the second stint,” he added, “however I knew I wasn’t going to have the ability to maintain on and we fell off that cliff in direction of the top.

“I used to be dropping a second a lap within the final 15 laps, however to be truthful, we simply didn’t have the tempo and even when I had managed extra, I believe I nonetheless would have come residence in P5.

“We all know that it’s a little bit of a weak spot of our automobile in the intervening time. And coming residence P5  on a nasty day – we’ll take it – however we have to attempt to enhance it shortly.”

Russell added that the dearth of efficiency wasn’t brought on by hotter temperatures on observe: “It’s about how briskly we’re going by means of these corners, and for no matter motive, we have generated extra temperature than our rivals.

“Then out of the blue you get to a degree the place the tyres are like a balloon. We had blistering on the entrance, blistering on the rear, after which out of the blue you simply haven’t any grip from the tyre in any respect.”

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This comes after a optimistic begin to the 2025 season for Russell, who claimed three podiums throughout the opening 4 grands prix together with a runner-up end in Bahrain final weekend.

“We have to perceive why Bahrain was so optimistic, as a result of that’s additionally an overheating observe, however a really completely different kind of overheating to what you expertise right here in Jeddah,” he stated.

“We had increased hopes for the race at the moment than we had for Bahrain, and it sort of turned out the alternative.”

Further reporting by Filip Cleeren and Mark Mann-Bryans