Mercedes laments “worst efficiency of the season” as George Russell’s tyres ‘fell off a cliff’ 

Toto Wolff was left livid believing the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was the “worst efficiency of the yr up to now” for Mercedes.

The Silver Arrows completed fifth (George Russell) and sixth (Andrea Kimi Antonelli) in Jeddah, because it considerably lagged behind rivals McLaren, Crimson Bull and Ferrari.

Wolff was confused as to why Mercedes lacked tempo, particularly when it has had a robust begin to the 2025 Formulation 1 season coming into the grand prix second within the championship.

“It was clearly our worst efficiency of the yr up to now,” the Mercedes boss stated. “The tempo simply dropped away with blistering, overheating tyres and up to now we haven’t bought an evidence.”

The truth that Mercedes was fast in qualifying – Russell began the grand prix in third – made the frustration deeper for Wolff.

He added: “You handle your expectations being the second quickest – and even that’s not clearly what we might want to obtain – and you then see the race panning out prefer it did. It simply provides to the frustration of the scenario.”

Russell shared Wolff’s frustrations having struggled to handle his Pirelli tyres, telling Sky Sports activities F1 “they had been massively overheating”.

“I used to be pushing onerous to stick with Max firstly of the second stint,” he added, “however I knew I wasn’t going to have the ability to maintain on and we fell off that cliff in direction of the tip.

“I used to be dropping a second a lap within the final 15 laps, however to be honest, we simply didn’t have the tempo and even when I had managed extra, I feel I nonetheless would have come house in P5.

“We all know that it’s a little bit of a weak point of our automotive in the intervening time. And coming house P5  on a foul day – we’ll take it – however we have to try to enhance it rapidly.”

Russell added that the dearth of efficiency wasn’t brought on by hotter temperatures on observe: “It’s about how briskly we’re going via these corners, and for no matter cause, we have generated extra temperature than our rivals.

“Then immediately you get to some extent the place the tyres are like a balloon. We had blistering on the entrance, blistering on the rear, after which immediately you simply don’t have any grip from the tyre in any respect.”

This comes after a constructive begin to the 2025 season for Russell, who claimed three podiums throughout the opening 4 grands prix together with a runner-up end in Bahrain final weekend.

“We have to perceive why Bahrain was so constructive, as a result of that’s additionally an overheating observe, however a really totally different kind of overheating to what you expertise right here in Jeddah,” he stated.

“We had increased hopes for the race as we speak than we had for Bahrain, and it type of turned out the other.”

Further reporting by Filip Cleeren and Mark Mann-Bryans

Photographs from Saudi Arabian GP – Race