“We know the potential is in the car” – Mercedes driver George Russell discusses W13’s performance issues and his relationship with Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes driver George Russell explains his relationship with Lewis Hamilton and how he has faith in the team over W13’s performance.

Mercedes have a lot of things to catch up on in the 2022 season. W13’s performance has been far below the standards preventing Russell and Hamilton a win.

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have secured a podium this season. However, their cars realistically are not able to chase Ferrari and Red Bull.

Red Bull’s reliability issues have upgraded Mercedes to the second position in the constructor’s table. In the season opener, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez retired paving way for Hamilton to secure a podium. In Australia, Verstappen’s retirement led to Russell finishing in the third position.

No interest in battling Lewis Hamilton

George Russell expressed to the media that he has ‘no interest in battling Hamilton for the fifth position. He said: “Obviously, everybody wants to finish ahead of their team-mate. However, Lewis and I have no interest in battling it out for P5 or P6.”

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He explained that both of them have no hard feelings when one is ahead of the other. Mercedes is currently working together to claw that gap up as per Russell.

The Briton said: “We have a bigger picture. And the long game we need to play is to catch these guys up because we’re here to win”

Good upgrades take time

Russell agreed that Mercedes’ positive returns and its sheer performance merits are keeping us in the mix. However, he emphasized that the team’s problems will take time to resolve.

“I’d love to say we’ve made a lot of progress. But I think we’ve got to look at the lap times and we haven’t closed the gap at all. And we know we’ve got a lot of work to do but I have faith that we can get there,” he explained.

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Keeping faith in the team is the main priority for both drivers. The number 66 understands that things would not change overnight, but appreciates the point finishes. He concluded by stating the below:

“It’s definitely not based on pace. But I think it’s been a respectable start to the season in terms of how we’ve managed to optimize our lack of performance.”