“It was the throttle pedal”: What Mercedes told Russell about his terrible start

Mercedes gave George Russell further feedback on what caused the problem with his car which ruined his start to the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Russell’s slow getaway from sixth on the grid dropped him to the rear of the field and dealt a further blow to his world championship hopes. When he asked his team what had gone wrong his race engineer Marcus Dudley immediately replied: “Anti-stall.”

The anti-stall system activates to prevent an engine from stopping when the revs dip too low. Russell would obviously be aware his anti-stall had activated, so as he continued around the opening lap he replied: “Yeah, I know anti-stall,” then a few corners later added: “Was I on target or not?”

“Clutch [was] two percent shallow,” Dudley replied. “It was the throttle pedal, you backed off at high RPM.”

Russell’s revs dipped around the time the fourth red light illuminated prior to the start. After finishing the race seventh he told Dudley: “Not sure what happened at the start. The revs were just running away from me.”

Afterwards Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said the poor start was due to the car, not the driver. Mercedes changed Russell’s power unit overnight after he suffered a water leak during qualifying.

“His problem at the start was fully on us as a team and it isn’t good enough,” said Wolff. “He has suffered too many of these problems. We are doing everything we can to get on top of them, but it is unfortunately another issue that has cost him again today.”

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Deputy team principal Bradley Lord said Russell’s engine revs had risen beyond what he had requested. “As the drivers wait for the start, they hold what are called their ‘wait revs’ which is holding the engine’s rpm at a specific level,” he explained in a video released by the team. “As George was doing that, the revs actually rose out of proportion to what he was asking for from the throttle.

“The revs hit the rev limiter at the maximum rpm that the engine allows at that point, and then George tried to get it back under control to optimise and control his start. He wasn’t able to do so and as he was lifting right off the throttle to under 10% of throttle demand.

“The lights went out and so he made a start with effectively much too little throttle through no fault of his own. That meant the anti-stall kicked in so he dropped to the back of the field.”

Russell revealed his power unit problem in qualifying had an unusual side effect. Although his power delivery was unaffected, the lost water sprayed onto his rear tyres during his flying lap, causing a drop in temperature.

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2026 Hungarian Grand Prix

• “It was the throttle pedal”: What Mercedes told Russell about his terrible start
• How Piastri’s quick thinking avoided a slow pit stop early in the race
• “Every opportunity I give those stewards…”: Hamilton laments fifth penalty in six rounds
• Second place “an over-performance compared to what we expected” – Verstappen
• “Disgraceful”: Wolff criticises “Teletubbies” at rival teams over blue flags delay

Browse all 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix articles

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