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Russell DNF Sao Paulo GP 2023 Brazil The car was just slow

Russell dejected in Brazil: "By far our weakest race of the year"

5 November 2023 at 20:11

George Russell had to retire from an extremely frustrating race at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix after he had problems with his power unit. The Briton was on the edge of missing out on points this weekend, and had to park his car in the garage while he was running in P10.

"Clearly we got something wrong this weekend. Still not too sure what that is as yet but the pace just hasn't been there. We thought yesterday may have been a one-off but clearly it wasn't. So we need to regroup, try and understand it because 12 months ago this was our strongest race of the year. 12 months later, by far our weakest race of the year. Very strange," Russell told Sky Sports after finishing with a DNF in Brazil.

"The car was just slow this weekend. The tyres were just sliding around and I think what we were doing was the maximum. So as I said, something doesn't quite add up. You don't just suddenly lose a second's worth of performance and go from a podium fighting car to just fighting for points," the Briton also explained why his car suddenly lost pace this weekend.

Almost a complete engine failure for Russell

Russell also commented on why he had to retire his car. "The engine was overheating and it would have broken had we not retired. So it kind of topped off the day but I just really need to understand what happened to the race."