An angry George Russell called for a review within Mercedes after poor qualifying execution at the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix, which left him dumped out of Q1 whilst Lewis Hamilton struggled to make it into the final part of the session at the Hungaroring.
Being in the Top 10 shootout is the minimum expectation for a team like the Silver Arrows so it was a huge shock when Russell was eliminated as the rain began to fall meaning he will line up for Sunday’s race from 17th on the grid.
And whilst Hamilton managed to get safely through to Q2, he also found himself staring down the barrel of missing out on Q3 in what was almost a catastrophic weekend for Toto Wolff’s team, on the back of two successive F1 race wins, leaving Russell seething.
“You never take off the ball,” Russell said to media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “We need to have a proper sit down as a team to understand what’s going on.
“We’ve got a car to be fighting for the top three so we shouldn’t be standing here out in Q1. Lewis only just made it into Q3.
“I’m really quite angry right now, because we’ve got such a fast car and we can’t be throwing it away like this.”
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Angry Russell takes blame for Mercedes Q1 exit
Rain fell just prior to the start of qualifying for the Hungarian GP and left the track damp, although the heavens closed before the green light actually went out to start the session.
So, it presented risk and opportunity to the drivers in Q1 and unfortunately Russell fell into the risk category as he messed up his first run before Mercedes compounded his misery by under-fuelling his W15 car.
It ensured he could not post consecutive runs to make use of the evolving track, learn where the new grip is and build up a general sense of feel and momentum that left him behind Sergio Perez, despite the Red Bull crashing out earlier on.
“It was on me at the beginning,” Russell added, despite being angry enough to call for a review of the Q1 chaos at Mercedes. “I didn’t think that it was going to rain again, so I just thought the track would get quicker.
“I took it easy on lap one and suddenly it started raining and that was the most important lap, but it didn’t matter. At the end, it was the quickest and we had no fuel in the car to finish the session. No idea how that happened, and it was a total disaster.”
