George Russell left baffled as McLaren's Lando Norris outpaces Mercedes at Red Bull Ring

George Russell expressed his bewilderment at the impressive Formula 1 performance displayed by McLaren and their driver Lando Norris, who outshone Mercedes at the Red Bull Ring.

The British driver initially finished the race in 8th position, but he was later promoted to 7th after stewards issued several post-race penalties, including a 10-second penalty for his teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Although Norris has historically achieved strong results at the Red Bull Ring, Russell admitted that he had not anticipated McLaren to exhibit such formidable strength.

"There's a lot to understand; we took a big step backwards. Lando and McLaren were a big surprise for us, they clearly got it right," he conveyed to the media.

"In certain circumstances, we have a fast car, and we just need to understand why we didn't have it this weekend."

"The key is finding the right balance, as this circuit is entirely different from one like Barcelona. In the last two weekends, we were not as competitive as we'd like to be."

Throughout the season, the W14 has proven to be a challenging car to set up correctly for both drivers.

Lewis Hamilton acknowledged that adjustments to his setup caused struggles during the Austria GP, leading to infringements on track limits.

Russell believes that the Sprint weekend format affected Mercedes' ability to extract the most from their car.

"Silverstone is going to be an interesting one for us as it's clearly circuit dependent," he added.

"In these Sprint races, it can be very challenging if you don't hit the ground running, and we clearly didn't."

"The pace wasn't good on Friday, and we knew we were off the pace in the long run. Had it been a normal weekend, maybe the result would have been different than today."

Get ready to mark your calendars for Sunday, 9 July, as the British Grand Prix awaits at the Silverstone Circuit.