Former System 1 driver and Sky Sports activities analyst Karun Chandhok has warned that ongoing energy unit anomalies at Mercedes danger sending George Russell right into a psychological spiral of “irrational paranoia” until the workforce can swiftly present engineering solutions to the Briton.
Talking on the Sky Sports activities F1 Present, Chandhok analysed the fallout from the Belgian Grand Prix, a weekend that dealt one other blow to Russell’s championship battle.
Whereas his Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli claimed his sixth victory of the season, Russell’s race ended on the opening lap. After struggling an absence {of electrical} deployment off the road, the 28-year-old was left a sitting duck on the straights earlier than a collision with Lewis Hamilton despatched him into the gravel.Â
“It’s kind of like how Oscar Piastri summed it up. This has turn into the algorithm world championship,” Chandhok defined on the podcast. “For me, although, the largest factor is the psychological impact it’s had on George as a result of as a driver, it’s an terrible feeling.”
In response to Chandhok, the lack to match a team-mate can ship a driver right into a spiral.
“I’ve had that a few instances once you come again to the storage, you take a look at the information, and also you go, ‘Dangle on a second. I’m as quick as my team-mate in all of the corners. I’m simply slower on the straights. What extra can I do?'” he continued.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, George Russell, Mercedes
Picture by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Pictures through Getty Pictures
“And then you definitely begin this spiral. ‘Why aren’t the workforce serving to me? Are these folks for me?’ The issue makes it worse. It will get in your head, and it causes you a difficulty.
“It provides you this sense of paranoia, which might not be rational, proper? It’s an irrational paranoia, however racing drivers are working in a extremely emotional setting, and I feel there’s an enormous impact of that.”
After the Belgian Grand Prix, which was the tenth spherical of the 2026 season, Russell sits third within the drivers’ championship, 50 factors behind chief Antonelli.
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