George Russell acknowledged that both he and his teammate Lewis Hamilton encountered engine problems during the Bahrain Grand Prix, affecting their performance.
Russell, who started in third place, managed to climb to second at one point but ultimately finished fifth, trailing behind the Red Bulls and Ferraris.
A significant loss of power was a key factor in his fall in the rankings, a concern he voiced over the team radio during the race.
He admitted that these issues prevented the team from fully showcasing the Mercedes’ capabilities, which seemed to be more competitive with their rivals compared to previous years.
The 26-year-old further mentioned that the team’s inability to accurately anticipate the race conditions significantly impacted their results.
He said: “We both faced a similar problem [with Hamilton] for some reason we had massive engine overheating and the battery wasn’t working properly.
“I made a really good start, got into second and then suddenly I had these big red alarms on my steering wheel and I had no battery left, we had to turn the power down, we were losing about four-tenths a lap just in power.
“It’s a shame that we didn’t get to show any real potential of this car, so a bit of a strange day. It’s nothing really to be concerned about all we needed to do was put a slightly bigger bodywork on. Our forecast of the conditions were incorrect so we need to go round that loop and ultimately it cost us a lot.
“I think all of the teams have maybe five or six different cooling specifications and we went with our most aggressive option and clearly just went too far, it was just simply a decision that we chose the wrong bodywork for the conditions of today.”
Russell crossed the finish line over 46 seconds behind the victorious Max Verstappen. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton, finished in seventh place behind McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Mercedes, with only a single race win in the past two seasons, had shown promising performance during practice sessions, indicating a potential resurgence to the forefront of the grid.
However, their performance in the race did not meet expectations. Hamilton acknowledged that the gap to the Red Bulls was larger than they had initially thought.
