George Russell: Mercedes’ progress is real

George Russell finished third in Canada, giving Mercedes their first podium of the season. The British driver believes that the team is on the rise and will regularly be able to compete with McLaren.

Question: George, great race, but you said it was a race of missed opportunities. Considering Mercedes’ progress in recent races, should you leave Montreal in a good mood?
George Russell: Yes, absolutely, 100%. If the team had been told before the start of the weekend that we would finish third, we wouldn’t have believed it.

The race turned out to be difficult for everyone: as soon as you drove even a millimeter off the track, you were eliminated. I think I just made too many mistakes at crucial moments, which meant I couldn’t compete with the two leaders at the end of the race.

Q: Apparently your car was fast under all conditions. Tell us why you decided to make the last pit stop and thus give the position to Oscar Piastri?
George Russell: I really wanted to make a pit stop because I thought I would be very competitive in the last laps with the new Medium kit. Max Verstappen and Lando Norris were on Medium at the time, and I was on Hard and thought I could compete if I changed the tires.

You know, if you knew in advance what was going to happen, you would have done a lot of things differently, but I’m happy with our progress. I’m proud of the team that worked hard to get this new product ready, and it paid off.

Question: Can we already say that Mercedes is back in contention?
George Russell: You know, I think Red Bull… It’s no secret that they had problems with the car in the last three races. Let’s wait and see how they perform in Barcelona on a more traditional circuit.

The speed increase the team showed this weekend came as no surprise, as the numbers we saw at the grassroots indicated that the new products would enable improvement. The stage in Barcelona will be interesting for everyone, but I am confident that we can compete.

Question: Can we expect Mercedes to challenge for pole positions and wins in the near future? And talk about the battle with Lewis Hamilton in the final laps.
George Russell: As I said, Red Bull had problems in the last races, but they still won two out of three. I think they will make a small step forward when we return to the traditional European circuits. But our progress is real. I think we can fight against McLaren. I hope we keep fighting Max. Let’s see what shape Ferrari is in. It clearly wasn’t their weekend in Montreal.

In the last three laps I was focused on getting back on the podium as I felt like I had let the team down a bit, made a few mistakes and lost sight of Max. With Lewis it is always a tough but fair fight. When you fight against great riders, you know you can trust them. It was really cool to compete at the end.