Russell: It was a race of missed opportunities

George Russell believes he could claim the podium in Austria, but events on the opening lap of the race developed in such a way that he had to recover to the finish. The British Mercedes driver took 4th place as a result, but admitted he was counting on more.

George Russell: “If you remember how events unfolded, it was a race of missed opportunities. Obviously I was very upset about the incident on the first lap. I braked really late and really hard, while Sergio Perez was on a clean track, but as soon as he started going into the corner I realized there would be contact between the cars.

I was already driving to the limit, trying to slow down as much as possible and turn as sharply as possible, but Sergio’s car was on a race track, where the grip level was higher. Firstly this contact, secondly I was fined for it and thirdly my car was also damaged, losing about 10 seconds on the first part of the distance.

Then I was in the pit stop for 20 seconds (the nose cone had changed on Russell’s car) and when I got onto the track I finished in 17th position and had to overtake all these cars. It worked, so the race result can be considered normal, but I was counting on a better result.

Even after replacing the front wing, it didn’t feel like the car could handle the pace I expected at the end of the race. Although of course we are gradually closing the gap on Red Bull and Ferrari. However, our technical innovations only work really effectively on those tracks that naturally suit our car well. Therefore, high expectations should be avoided.

That’s how the update package presented at Silverstone worked, but the British track is well suited to W13, and we got there really quickly. In Austria Mercedes was not particularly fast before, although we should be closer to the leaders on the next two circuits. However, we are not yet able to fully compete with Red Bull and Ferrari.”