“They are no quicker than us”- George Russell speaks on Alfa Romeo and Haas’ performances

“They are no quicker than us”- George Russell compares Williams with Alfa Romeo and Haas despite being the only team not to score points.

George Russell, during a conversation with Motorsport, claims that Alfa Romeo and Haas are not any better than Williams, despite his team being the only team not to score any points this season.

Williams had made significant improvement over the course of this year. Still, the duo of Nicholas Latifi and Russell have not managed to end up in the top 10, despite making it to P11 on three different occasions.

On the other hand, Ferrari powered Haas, and Alfa Romeo also struggles against superior teams but still managed to register a handful number of points.

Alfa Romeo has scored five points, and Haas three, with their respective tallies boosted by top 10 finishes for Antonio Giovinazzi and Romain Grosjean at the Eifel Grand Prix.

“In all honesty, I think I’m realistic, and obviously as nice as it would be to score a point or two or three, ultimately the car just isn’t quick enough,” said Russell.

“We need to continue working really hard to bring more performance to the car as we don’t want to be lucking into [points at] these events, we want to be there on merit, ultimately that’s where we are at the moment.

“For Haas and Alfa [Romeo] things have just gone their way really in these races and they are no quicker than us, and I don’t believe they have done anything better than us. Things have just gone their way when it has been these particular opportunities, and it hasn’t for us.

“There have been several times when we’ve had excellent races and finished high up the order relatively, but there haven’t been five midfield cars breaking down, which is the difference between scoring points or not.

“It’s a shame, as a race team we’re doing things really well, we’re getting the most out of our package, we just need to get more downforce on the car to get in those positions more often.”

Tragedy wrecks hope

During the Eifel Grand Prix, Russell might have had a chance to finish in the top-10 with a good start in the race, but he was tipped into the air by Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen during an early battle with Sebastian Vettel.

“It was obviously frustrating, I actually overtook Sebastian in the chicane before, but he then got the run on me on the exit which I don’t think was shown on TV, which allowed him to have DRS,” he said.

“Kimi was behind, I left plenty of space, but Kimi locked up behind Sebastian and lost the rear. It’s racing, we’re all pushing hard, and it’s not easy sometimes,”

“But it’s frustrating as the car was feeling good and the way the race went I think we could have scored points. It’s all going against us at the moment, unfortunately.”

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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