Although the second part of the first semester did not go as planned, and he “struggled” several times behind the wheel in the last races, George Russell made it clear that the most important goal of the summer break would still be a race victory. for him.
The first half of the 2023 season did not go according to plan for George Russell, who won big prizes last year by beating Lewis Hamilton (scoring more points for the seven-time champion and also winning the race for Mercedes): Hamilton fought and performed more spectacularly than his young teammate, which had several weaker weekends.
Especially in the second part of the first semester: that’s when his “being left behind” by his teammates became more and more exciting. Speaking to GPBlog on the matter, Russell admitted he made mistakes, but also noted that luck wasn’t on his side this time either.
In addition, Mercedes’ spa developments did not live up to expectations at the moment: the team once again suffered a rebound. Despite all this, Russell has an unwavering faith in the stars and in himself; His goal in the second half is nothing but winning. “I can divide the first twelve races into two parts.” – began the young competitor.
“I was very satisfied with my own performance in the first six races, and I was very strong at that time. After that, there were obviously some missed opportunities.” He pointed out the mistakes made in Monaco and Canada, as well as the poorly timed safety car stage for him from the British race.
“Recently, the situation has shifted and I’ve been struggling with the car. They have some ideas as to why that might be. We followed the direction of the setup and it turned out last weekend that it was the wrong direction.” – confess honestly before talking about forecasts for the second half of the year.
“The fact that we realized it was the wrong direction gives me some confidence that we can turn things around in the second half of the year. But we have our eyes set on Red Bull and we still want to win the race! We are going to work hard for that.” He finished his thought.
George Russell (Photo: Mercedes/Jerry Krenick)
