George Russell revealed that a recurring brake issue has hampered his prospects in race trim at recent grands prix, as Williams’ struggles continue.
Williams has endured a lacklustre season with its recalcitrant FW42 and has scored just one point all year, courtesy of Robert Kubica in a rain-lashed German Grand Prix.
Russell has been the more competitive of the two drivers for the majority of the campaign but cut a frustrated figure post-race in Japan after finishing a twice-lapped 18th.
“We've been having a bit of a braking issue for a number of events now,” Russell explained.
“It was particularly bad in the race, so you know, when you're almost braking into every corner you have no confidence on the brakes, means you have no confidence to attack the corner, that was compromising my pace.
“It’s just consistency, some laps it's working well and others it's not. So, we need to look into the data and understand why.”
Russell feels that the setback is proving a greater issue across race trim as opposed to through a single lap.
“When you've got one single lap, you can sort of make a bit of a difference,” said Russell.
“When it's a longer run it sort of evens itself out. With issues like that, obviously I'm doing that 60 laps in a row, rather than one-time. Over one lap you can put balls to the wall and hope for the best.”
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