George Russell was not alone in suffering a major deployment problem out of the opening corner of the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix as it emerged that every Mercedes engine suffered from the issue.

While Russell paid the biggest price, due to a lack of deployment up the Kemmel Straight that triggered his tangle with Lewis Hamilton at Les Combes, his team explained how every Mercedes-engined car suffered at Spa-Francorchamps.

“I came out of Turn 1 [and] for whatever reason, I was 30-40% down on my battery and I just got totally swamped up by three cars,” said Russell.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff added: “All Mercedes engines had a lack of energy out of Turn 1, so it wasn't only George.

“It affected him more than Kimi [Antonelli], but also Kimi had that issue to a certain degree. That meant that he [Russell] didn't come out at the end of the straight in P3, but P5. So he lost his two positions, and then obviously [had] the accident with Lewis.

“It's unfortunate, losing points for him, losing points in the constructors’ championship, and it's like every weekend we have one car that doesn't finish."

Race-winner Antonelli called it "crazy" as he recalled the first lap in which Max Verstappen passed him at Eau Rouge before the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc caught up.

"It was crazy. To be fair, I was so confused about what was happening because Max came flying past me before Eau Rouge, and then I passed him back.

"But then I saw Charles almost come alongside me, and I was like: “What the heck is happening?” I had no clue."

Antonelli hung onto the lead despite the Mercedes deployment issues and ended up winning the race by two seconds over Leclerc.

He continued: "I was just trying to hold the position on track, and I was looking in my mirror the whole time because I just saw so many cars coming. But it was a crazy start. Luckily, we got away cleanly."

Verstappen, meanwhile, quipped that he had "too much deployment from Turn 1 to Turn 2" as he looked back on the start and that Eau Rouge pass.

After overtaking Antonelli through Eau Rouge and Radillon, Verstappen said he was expecting a "difficult run" to Les Combes.

"I expected Kimi to come by, and then I looked in my mirror and just saw a red rocket coming. I was like, 'Oh, I’ll just hold my line because if I move here, we’re going to have an airplane shunt.'

"So, it was pretty incredible, the differences."

Mercedes deployment issues uncovered

Russell’s early exit from the Belgian GP came after a weekend where he has struggled with energy management compared to team-mate Kimi Antonelli - losing several tenths of a second per lap in practice and qualifying down the straights.

While there was no immediate answer as to the cause of his problem ahead of race day, Wolff has now revealed that the issue appeared to have been triggered by a combination of a power unit setting and some driving inputs from Russell himself.

“There was definitely something on the engine that we have identified that meant he only had less energy to deploy into Turn 18,” explained Wolff.

“It's good that we spotted it here, because in Budapest, which is not energy-starved, it would have been more difficult to identify.

“It still doesn't make it better for him, and that probably accounted for half the gap, or a little bit more, that he had to Kimi.”

Wolff said that the issue that Russell encountered was "a completely new thing" and resulted in his deployment being greater at the start of the lap than the end.

“The impact was that he had more energy available at the beginning of the lap, and then less energy at the end of the lap,” he said.

“In terms of optimisation, it was a deficit. And we believe that the deficit was about two, two and a half tenths, in qualifying modes, much less on the long runs.”