George Russell moved to Mercedes at the beginning of the 2022 season to welcome his days of glory with one of the top F1 teams.
But Mercedes’ 2022 F1 car, W13, did not make it easy for the young Briton. The team struggled throughout the year with pace and porpoising.
The victory did come to Russell in the second half of the season at the Brazil GP making it his maiden GP victory in his F1 career so far. But the later part of the 2022 campaign also brought mental distress to the 24-year-old.
Russell said that the three bad races in the latter part of the season had psychological impacts on him. He revealed that there was also a lot of abuse on social media. All of it combined together becomes a tough pill to swallow.
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George Russell was mentally drained
The team’s poor performance in the 2022 season undoubtedly had a drastic impact on the team. The W13 saw the hope of Lewis Hamilton’s chance at his record 8th title fade away.
Russell said that there is always a lot going on that’s not seen at the front. The Briton said that everyone had good and tough moments which often coincides with the performance.
On top of that, a few difficult races combined with a hectic travel schedule took a toll on Russell. He admitted that he was struggling towards the later part of the season.
Russell struggled to handle Mercedes’ off-track demands
Becoming a part of the bigger team, Russell had more duties off the track as well and he struggled to keep up with those.
He revealed that each day for marketing was one day less at the gym for training or resting and recovering.
Going ahead, he hopes to figure out how he is going to deal with these things because the 24-year-old believes that he hasn’t dealt with them well this year.
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