Wolff addresses Russell's recent struggles with 'knife edge' W14

Toto Wolff has offered some insight on why George Russell has struggled recently to get to grips with Mercedes' W14 machine relative to Lewis Hamilton, underscoring the car's borderline characteristics.

Russell is trailing Hamilton by 49 points in the Drivers' standings, having been outscored by his teammate in the last three races while being outpaced by the latter in qualifying in six of the last seven events.

It has been suggested that Hamilton has better coped with the recent updates introduced by Mercedes than Russell.

But Wolff believes the latter's struggles were perhaps rooted in the W14's jagged edge traits that have slightly eroded Russell's confidence.

• Read also: Hamilton reveals target for second phase of 2023 season

"I don’t know. These cars are on the knife’s edge," Wolff explained at the Belgian Grand Prix ahead of F1's summer break.

"You can quickly fall off it and lose the confidence. On the other side, if you’re within that corridor of sweet spot… having said that, that car has no sweet spot!

"But being more in that zone of understanding what it will do next, I think there’s a big difference and you can quickly be in either one of these situations, and obviously it goes against you."

©Mercedes

Russell admitted after Mercedes' race at Spa, which he concluded in sixth position, two spots behind Hamilton, that he didn't feel entirely on top of things regarding his car's vagaries.

"When you’re on the right foot, things are a little bit easier," he said. "You’re not stressing, your car is in the right place when you put it on the ground.

"I’m sure we’re going to be strong in the second half of the season. We’ve got some little things coming in after the break.

"I’m confident we can secure that second-best team… to try and close that gap further."

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter