Mercedes F1’s George Russell is recharged following the summer break and ready to embark on the new challenge of the 2026 Dutch GP. The Brit, who has secured two race wins thus far in his fifth season with the German outlet, is anticipating his return on track.
Russell looks back on first half of 2026 F1 season with Mercedes ahead of Dutch GP
Russell reckons the importance of the intensity of the second half of the Formula 1 season, as he highlighted the need for improvement in his and his team’s performance, which have seen him not score three times in the past seven races.
”Yeah, I think every race weekend now is going to be very important. You want to build that momentum. Obviously, we’ve got a number of triple-headers coming into the last part of the year. We’re only just at the halfway point. So, yeah, just continue to keep working.”
Aiming to build on the strong pace and potential shown on the occasion of his last race win in Austria, Russell admitted he is ready to leave behind the challenges faced in the latest rounds.
“There was a good phase in the middle of the first half and then the last three races were tough for different reasons. But just looking forward to starting again and trying to get back into a good groove.”
Troubles marred several of his latest outings
In fact, he explained that he had experienced a software issue in the past Belgian and British rounds. While it was solved ahead of the Hungarian GP, he recalled, he still suffered from severe lack of feeling with the W17.
“Yeah, it was fixed in Hungary. It was just a challenging weekend. I think from FP1 onwards the car wasn’t in a great place. We had a number of issues with the chassis and that was just a tough race weekend. I think that is always to be expected at some point.
“When I actually look at the performance, that was probably, from our side, the first real tough weekend in about six Grands Prix when we had, let’s say, a clean weekend. Nevertheless, I still think there was an opportunity on Sunday to get a decent result, maybe fight for the podium.”
A perfectly timed summer break
The troubles encountered right before the beginning of the summer break definitely motivated Russell to work even harder on himself.
“However, we had another issue with the race start. So just looking forward to this fresh start in the second half of the year. There’s no guarantees the performance is going to be better. I’m working very hard on-track, off-track, to try and find that rhythm that I’ve had for so long and that I had at the beginning of the season.”
Asked whether he believes that in order to suit better the attitude of his Mercedes challenger he needs to change his driving style, Russell was unsure, but maintenance a positive attitude.
“I think we’ll see. You know, I don’t want to overthink it too much. I just want to sort of trust in my ability and drive a little bit more instinctively. And maybe that’s what I hadn’t been doing before the break. And I think, yeah, just going in with an open mind and see where it takes me.
Third in the drivers’ standings, Mercedes driver George Russell stated that competing with teammate Kimi Antonelli for the F1 title will not be his goal for the Dutch GP. Instead, Russell is confident that by improving his feeling with the W17, and putting in consistently strong drives, everything else will fall into place.
“Not really thinking about it. Just taking it race by race. I know I need to improve the performance if I want to be in the fight, so that’s the main priority. If the performance improves, then the points reduce, and it’s as simple as that, really.”
