Fourth in the standings with 84 points and the only driver able to always finish in the top 5 in the seven races so far disputed.
Reading these numbers one might think that George Russell could be satisfied with this first part of the season with Mercedes, but the driver who has been racing with the Brackley team this year, after wearing Williams’ colors from 2019 to 2021, has admitted that the expectations at the beginning of the year were decidedly different.
Mercedes for the first time since the start of the turbo-hybrid era found itself with a single-seater, the W13, unable to fight for the win and Russell has openly stated that he does not expect such a complicated start to the season in his prime. year as a Star pilot.
“If I had been told before the season that after seven races I would not have achieved a victory, I would have been disappointed.”
George Russell, Mercedes W13, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL36
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Despite his bitterness at not being able to get on the top step of the podium in Formula 1 for the first time, Russell then claimed to have achieved the maximum possible so far from a W13 as far as performance from Red Bull and Ferrari.
“In any case, I am satisfied with the results I obtained considering the pace of the car. We were able to maximize the potential. I don’t see many races in which we could have achieved more important results, but we certainly have room to improve ”.
“When you understand both the car and the tires better, you always try to achieve more. And then I want to fight for the championship ”.
“We have to deal with drivers of the caliber of Max and Charles who are doing a great job right now with Ferrari. As a team we have to keep pushing, and that’s what I’m doing too ”.
One of the most complicated races that Mercedes had to face was that of Monaco and Russell himself admitted that all the limits of the W13 project emerged on the Principality track. Even in that weekend, however, George managed to get the most out of the car and according to the British the lessons learned in Monte Carlo will be useful to further grow the car.
“In Monaco we faced some limitations of our car, but we learned a lot and we will be able to use this experience to grow in the coming weeks. Fifth place overall is a decent result and I am confident that better days will come for us ”.
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