George Russell claims Mercedes will be ‘team to beat’ once they solve issues

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

George Russell believes that Mercedes can contend in 2022, even if their issues persist until the summer break in the Formula 1 season.

The German team have made a slow start, struggling to match the pace of Red Bull and Ferrari after a design overhaul and facing particular “porpoising” problems.

That has led Russell’s colleague Lewis Hamilton to question whether Mercedes, who have won the last eight Constructors’ Championships, will be able to part of the race for the world title.

Russell, in his first season with the manufacturer after joining from Williams, is more optimistic, and believes there is plenty of time yet to make gains.

Indeed, the 24-year-old British driver believes that even if the issues are not solved by the midseason break in August, Mercedes could still be in the mix come the end of the season if they establish themselves as the “team to beat” in the run-in.

“Even if it goes all the way into the summer break, you’ve got so many races after that,” Russell explained.

“If we continue to maximise our points and damage limitation to be within touching distance, if we come out and suddenly resolve all our issues and we are the team to beat, there’s no reason why we can’t overturn the deficit.

“We all have excitement that a solution can be found.”

Russell has managed to secure two top-five finishes to start his career proper at Mercedes.

The 24-year-old had previously stood in for an absent Hamilton at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix, but was recruited ahead of 2022 to replace Valtteri Bottas as his compatriot’s partner.

The fourth and fifth place results leave Russell fourth in the early Drivers’ Championship standings, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc the front-runner ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.

Mercedes took a one-two on the last visit to Melbourne in 2019, and Russell has said that “everybody is working night and day” to try and find improvements as they prepare for the third race of the season - but admits that it is tough to test tweaks to the car on race weekends.

“Everybody is working day and night to find a solution as soon as possible,” Russell said.

“We are a bit time-limited because the only time we can test is during an FP1 or FP2 session.

“Equally, you have to focus on the race weekend and we only have two hours’ worth of practice on a Friday per race weekend. It’s not long.”