With Mercedes, George Russell is navigating a difficult run of form.
At the Belgian Grand Prix, George Russell made light of the fact that his Mercedes was underweight, claiming he simply “didn’t eat enough pizza.” After the race, the British driver was disqualified by the FIA after a post-race inspection.
Russell’s disqualification brought an end to a frustrating run of events; going into the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in two weeks, he has not finished in the top six in his last five starts. That figure, though, does not fully capture the 26-year-old British person’s situation.
Lewis Hamilton, a teammate, won the race in Belgium after Russell qualified on pole at Silverstone due to a mechanical problem that forced Mercedes to retire his car. Russell was devastated by the aforementioned disqualification.
However, pizza—an unlikely ally—could have saved the British from the heartache. Russell Hamilton and other fans in the Italian Grand Prix fan zone were asked if they had ever tried any of Italy’s most well-known culinary exports.
“We’re a little too heavy right now, we can’t have pizza,” Hamilton retorted. Right now, we’re a little overweight. He was heavy and I was even heavier in the previous race. “Yeah in Spa I didn’t have my pizza so I was underweight and disqualified last week,” Russell joked.
“I need maybe half a pizza because we were heavy and slow in Zandvoort, where I had a lot of pizza.” Hamilton laughed at this and continued, saying, “It’s true! We had too much weight!
Russell experienced yet another frustrating weekend at the Italian Grand Prix. Although he didn’t struggle with weight, his race began to unravel quickly. At Turn One, the British driver forced himself to use the escape road in order to avoid opening-lap contact after challenging Oscar Piastri for second place from a P3 grid slot.
He got in touch with Max Verstappen after resurfacing far down the order on the racetrack. The end result was damage to the front wing endplate, which gave Sergio Perez room to maneuver during the first stint.
After switching to the front wing later in the race, Russell was able to pass Perez once more, but the British driver was unable to show off his true speed as he trailed three-time world champion Verstappen. In the meantime, Hamilton crossed the finish line in fifth place.
Russell is now comfortably last in the Drivers’ Championship standings among the eight drivers from the top four teams as a result of this finish. In 2024, he is 15 points behind Perez with eight races left.
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