Mercedes have been left scratching their heads after suffering their “worst performance of the year” at the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

After 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell challenged for pole position, Mercedes endured a disappointing and rather anonymous race in Jeddah. The Briton slipped from third on the grid to a distant fifth, ahead of rookie teammate168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Kimi Antonelli.

R🦩ussell ended up half a minute down on the front with fifth and sixth representing Mercedes’ joint-worst result of the 2025 s🔯eason so far.

More concerning was the Silver Arrows’ general lack of race p🐠ace, something which left team principal Toto Wolff perplexed.

“It was clearly our worst performance of the year so far,” Wolff sai👍d. “The pace just dropped awa♑y with blistering, overheating tyres and so far we haven’t got an explanation.”

“You manage your expectations being the second q♚uickest - and even that is not obviously what we would wish to achieve - and then you see the race panning out like it did.

"It just adds to the frustratio꧅n of the situation.”

Despite their underwhelming pe🙈rformance in Saudi Arabia, Mercedes remain a solid second in the constructors’ championship on 111 points, 77 adrift of leaders McLaren.

George Russell’s tyres felt like a balloon

Russell blamed overheating for his lack of pace, explaining that his tyres felt like “a balloon” in the closing stages. He was heard airing concerns about a potent💎ial fai𝓰lure over team radio as he nursed his tyres to the end.

“I was pushing hard to stay with Max at the beginning of the second stint,” Russell told Sky Spo😼rts F1. “But I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold on and we fell off that cliff towards the end.

“I was dropping a second a lap in the last 15 laps, but to be fair, we just didn’t have the pace and even if I had managed more, I think I still♚ would have come home in P5.

“We know that it’s a bit of a w♏eakness of our car at the moment. And coming home P5  on a bad day - we’ll take it - but we need to try and improve it quickly.

“It’s about how fast we're going through these corners, and for whatever reason, we've generated more temperature than ♑our rivals.

“Then suddenly you get to a point where the tyres are like a balloon. We had blistering on thꦑe front, blistering on the rear, and then suddenly you just ha💮ve no grip from the tyre at all.”