Russell says he has never experienced a season this inconsistent

Finding consistency is George Russell’s top priority for the final races. At a press conference in Mexico, he said he had never experienced a season with such large performance swings, contrasting a pole by eight-tenths of a second and a win a few races earlier with eighth place the previous week.

Russell said the speed was still there, citing Baku, but reproducing it from one weekend to the next had been difficult. He said the team did not know what was behind the fluctuations.

Russell also said Mercedes’ recent upgrade performed within a very narrow window. The package was first introduced in Malaysia, where both drivers had a difficult weekend, he said. Antonelli used it again in Singapore, which Russell said was not a flawless weekend either. Russell said he had it back on his car in Austin and struggled while Antonelli had a strong race.

Mercedes needed to try to widen that window, Russell said; his own focus was to get the car into it each time.