George Russell's Mercedes F1 car confirmed to have software bug

George Russell looks forlorn at the Belgian Grand Prix in front of the Belgian flag — Photo: © IMAGO

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George Russell's Mercedes confirmed to have software bug

Could this be the answer to Russell's Mercedes woes?

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Wednesday 22 July 2026 17:42

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Mercedes have confirmed George Russell's F1 car did in fact suffer from an issue at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix shortly before crashing out of the race entirely.

The 28-year-old was ruled out of the race in Spa after colliding with seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton on lap one in an incident which saw the Ferrari star handed a five-second penalty.

Just after lights out on Sunday, Russell could be seen getting swallowed up by the rest of the pack, appearing to suffer with speed on the straights.

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Shortly after, he attempted to make a move around the outside of Hamilton at Turn 5 but clipped the champion's front left tyre, sending his Mercedes off into the gravel.

Moments later when the Brit entered the media pen, he claimed he wouldn't have had to fight for track position with Hamilton had it not been for a boost issue on his F1 car.

Team principal Toto Wolff suggested it wasn't just Russell's car that suffered from this problem, and now, a Mercedes' technical representative has confirmed that a software issue has been found on both Russell and Antonelli's machinery.

Mercedes confirm issue on Russell's car after Spa complaints

In a video posted to the official Mercedes social media accounts following the Belgian GP, the Silver Arrows' deputy technical director Simone Resta admitted that Wolff's squad are 'still struggling to understand' some elements of the completely new regulations.

He confirmed that like Russell suggested in Spa, Mercedes are now moving away from the theory that it is the Brit's driving style that explains his deficit to championship leader and team-mate Antonelli.

However, he also revealed that the issue Russell was complaining of did occur on Antonelli's car as well, even though the 19-year-old went on to claim victory in Spa.

"Essentially, we’ve been having a software issue with both our cars, which basically meant that we hit the harvesting limit at Turn 1," Resta revealed.

"For this situation, basically, we had a boost issue on both cars from Turn 1 to basically Turn 5, and this has affected both George and Kimi, and we have seen both of them losing ground after a good start."

With Antonelli's race win and Russell's DNF, the Italian teenager now has a 50-point lead over his team-mate, and Hamilton has also managed to overtake Russell for P2 in the championship ahead of this weekend's Hungarian GP.

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Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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F1 Mercedes George Russell Hungarian Grand Prix Belgian Grand Prix