Russell enjoyed a strong start to the year but gradually began struggling in qualifying throughout the second quarter of the season, out-qualifying team-mate Lewis Hamilton just once since Monaco, which put him on the back foot on Sundays.
Over the race weekends before the summer shutdown Russell repeatedly stated "things weren't clicking" for him aboard the Mercedes W14.
But as F1 reprised in Zandvoort he struck back by qualifying third behind Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, while Hamilton was the Mercedes driver struggling on Saturday and was knocked out in Q2.
Speaking at Monza, Russell revealed he changed his set-up approach with his core group of engineers after "overreaching" and trying to "reinvent the wheel".
"I probably lost my way slightly in the last couple of races before the break," he explained.
"This year [I was] overreaching at times, which has led to a bit of a drop in performance.
"What I think we've concluded is that we've been going wrong set-up direction in the recent few races. And that's been compromising my confidence and qualifying performance, and we perhaps put too much emphasis on the race.
"But that's why I was so happy with Zandvoort, because we changed the approach, put full focus on qualifying and on regaining my confidence. And after five laps back in the car, I felt like I got my mojo back."
Source: Autosport