George Russell has admitted concern over “baked in” issues with Mercedes’ 2025 car following a disappointing showing at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

The Brit posted his worst grand prix result of the season so far as he finished seventh at Imola, having dropped backwards from third on the grid.

While a poor strategy call and misfortune at the timing of a Virtual Safety Car played a part in the outcome, Russell was left downcast by a general lack of pace in the warm Italian conditions.

He told Sky Sports F1: “The trends are pretty clear. When it’s hot, we’re slow. When it’s cold, we’re quick. That was the same last year.

“We’ve been doing everything with the setup to try and find solutions, but there’s clearly something more fundamental in the car.”

Russell is fourth in the drivers’ standings, 47 points back from leader Oscar Piastri, but has defied inferior pace to the Australian’s McLaren team – and often also Red Bull – to score four podiums in the opening six rounds of the season that preceded Imola.

He continued: “It’s not the first race for this season where we’ve been slower than Ferrari, even slower or the same pace as Williams, but we’ve just somehow managed to get a result out of it on these occasions.

“But today we were very lucky to finish P7 in all honesty.”

‘We need to think quick’

Despite Russell’s team-mate Kimi Antonelli retiring from his first race on home soil with a throttle issue, Max Verstappen’s lack of help at Red Bull, and Ferrari’s general lack of speed, mean Mercedes are second in the Constructors’ Championship, albeit already 132 points back from McLaren.

Last season Mercedes’ performance was better in cooler conditions, with Russell and his former team-mate Lewis Hamilton sharing two wins apiece but also often struggling to match the front-runners at warmer events.

The Silver Arrows introduced front suspension and wing upgrades in Imola that there had been quite significant optimism around ahead of the event, but ultimately didn’t appear to help.

Russell added: “I wouldn’t say we are running out of ideas to solve the tyres, but as I said, it’s sort of baked into the car.

“You look at Ferrari a few years ago, they used to be mega quick in qualifying and slow in the race. Now they’ve kind of done a U-turn, and they also don’t really understand why that is.

“So, we need to find a better compromise, especially ahead of the next race. We’re approaching summer and it doesn’t really bode well for us. We need to think quick.”

Next up in F1’s European triple-header is the Jewel in the Crown, the Monaco Grand Prix on May 23-25, with coverage starting this Friday live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime