“Definitely something we need to work on”: 24-year old George Russell vary of Mercedes’ gap to Max Verstappen and Ferrari

George Russell admitted that Mercedes are still miles off the pace compared to Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and the two Ferraris. 

Russell joined Mercedes in 2022 after being involved with Williams for three seasons since his F1 debut. His arrival in Mercedes meant he was finally with a team regularly competing for race wins and World Titles. His first season, however, has not quite gone according to plan.

Mercedes don’t have the strongest car anymore and Red Bull and Ferrari have leaped in front of them. For the first half of the season, they were much slower than the top two. Despite that, they were still in the hunt for podium results. The last few races before the summer break, however, gave them strong hope for the remainder of the season.

Russell along with Hamilton has posed some threat to the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers lately. But the former still feels that they have a lot left to do. With just nine races to go in the 2022 season, Russell admits that the gap between them and the top-two teams is too big to close down.

Also read: “My world collapsed” – Lewis Hamilton shares what his emotions were after losing 2021 title race to Max Verstappen

Gap to Verstappen and Ferraris is quite extravagant, says George Russell

F1 action returned this weekend after a three-week summer break. Drivers took to the iconic Spa-Francorchamps track on Friday for the practice sessions, but Mercedes did not have the smoothest outing.

The set-ups they used may be different from the ones they plan on using for the race. However, they have to be concerned about the fact that in spite of Red Bull being forced to change their floor due to FIA regulations, they still look as fast as before.

“I think it’s something that we have struggled with quite a lot this season to get the temperature into the tyres,” Russell said to Sky Sports after FP2. “And we struggled a lot with that today. Getting temperatures into every compound we used.”

“It’s definitely something we need to work on. The gap to Max and the Ferraris is quite extravagant. We are sued to having bad Fridays. So let’s see if we can turn it around.”

Also read: $140 million driver shares his reaction to being replaced by Fernando Alonso