Russell still in 'shock': 'How is that possible?'

It was a disastrous weekend for Mercedes in Brazil. With Charles Leclerc unable to start on behalf of Ferrari, the damage was not too bad, but an eighth-place finish and a retirement were nothing to write home about. Ahead of the GP in Las Vegas, Russell is asked if the lack of performance was due to the higher-tuned floor.

"There were many, many reasons for our failure in Brazil. I think this is the nature of a sprint race. If you get it right, you're on a path to success. If you're in the wrong position, you've got no opportunity to rectify your mistakes. I think we learned, probably after five laps in a sprint race, we've got this wrong. We've made some mistakes here. You're cornered. So it was a real shame. We had high expectations going into that weekend," Russell said.

Russell chasing good result in Las Vegas

"To be honest, I'm still shocked and kind of impressed we're somehow in second in the championship. We've got this fight with Ferrari that we're determined to finish ahead. But I think we all can't wait for next year now and see what that brings."

The poor result came out of nowhere for Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton was still second in Mexico, and in the races before that, especially on Sunday, the pace was fine. Russell therefore feels that the tide could just turn in Las Vegas too.

"If you take Brazil out of the equation, the races prior to that were really promising. From Singapore, we had a car capable of winning. Qatar, we had massive pace. Japan, we struggled. But then Austin, Mexico, the car was really fast again. Brazil was definitely an outlier," concluded Russell.