George Russell admits the Bahrain Grand Prix end result bodes nicely for Mercedes having a aggressive Method 1 season, however he nonetheless believes he’s an outsider within the drivers’ championship.
Mercedes has struggled in scorching situations in latest seasons, with clean observe surfaces and cooler temperatures offering its best alternatives. Nevertheless, after securing a season’s-best second place in Bahrain — his third podium in 4 races — Russell says it’s a very vital end result because it reveals the progress with the automotive’s efficiency.
“[It gives] plenty of confidence,” Russell mentioned. “This was the actual type of check for us. We knew that our automotive likes the chilly situations, and the competitiveness we confirmed in China and Suzuka was no main shock. However this was going to be the query mark and we’ve had one other robust weekend. So it bodes nicely for the season.”
Regardless of the constructive indicators, Russell believes the tempo distinction with McLaren remains to be too huge at current to depend himself as a real title contender, regardless of solely being 14 factors adrift of championship chief Lando Norris.
“I’d like to say so, however I don’t assume we’re, to be sincere. McLaren are simply too dominant proper now,” he admitted. “I believe that is most likely going to be their peak efficiency, what we noticed this week in Bahrain. What we noticed in China and Suzuka was most likely their worst-case state of affairs and so they nonetheless clearly bought one victory from these two races.
“So we’ve bought to maintain on selecting up the factors, selecting up the items. And this weekend we picked up the items to get a P2 – and we did it in Melbourne as nicely to get the P3. I don’t anticipate this to proceed for a lot of races to return, however who is aware of?”
Group principal Toto Wolff echoes Russell’s encouragement as a result of Bahrain end result — one he referred to as an “unbelievable” drive from the Briton — and is barely extra optimistic that McLaren might be caught.
“We’d have anticipated that Bahrain would have been one of many very troublesome boards for us due to the nice and cozy ambient and the very granular, tough circuit,” Wolff mentioned. “Ultimately, we certified P2 and P4. We had a automotive that was in a position to be strong on the rostrum, and that’s higher than we anticipated.
“So, you possibly can name a race a hit should you win, however within the circumstances, one may say it was a lot better than we anticipated.
“When you take a look at the place McLaren was final 12 months, I believe they have been fourth and sixth or fifth and sixth, one thing like this. You possibly can see how shortly you possibly can flip the tide. Most likely [on Sunday] we have been a number of tenths lacking. Don’t understand how we’d have carried out on the medium on the finish.
“However undoubtedly we simply have to placed on our greatest sport and see the way it goes on the opposite tracks.”
