Mercedes in the title fight again? I don’t see why we can’t do it, says George Russell

Will Mercedes dominate the Constructors’ Cup again in the coming season? That’s a question we won’t know the answer to until the end of this year. But according to George Russell, there’s no reason why the German team can’t do it. What did the British driver say about last season?

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team didn’t exactly have a brilliant season in 2022. They only finished third in the Constructors’ Cup behind Red Bull and Ferrari, with the Austrian team breaking the Silver Arrows’ eight-year hegemony as regular Constructors’ Cup winners.

It should be noted, despite the first half of last season, the final results were not that bad. Apart from the third position in the constructors’ championship, the team did achieve at least one victory. And that was thanks to George Russell in the Brazilian Grand Prix.

It was at the Interlagos circuit that the very talented British driver scored his first career victory. In total, he achieved eight podiums in the 2022 season. He finished fourth in the final Drivers’ Championship standings with 275 points.

His teammate Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, experienced his first career season in which he failed to win even once. The seven-time champion finished sixth in the Drivers’ Championship with 240 points.

However, it must be said that the German stable did a great deal of quality work during the season. And at the end of last season, it returned to the battle for the race win, which is exactly what it did in Brazil.

So the Brazilian Grand Prix winner believes that the pace at which Mercedes has climbed back into the elite points to the fact that it is capable of challenging for the title again this year.

Russell’s statement

“I think if you look at the development that we’ve made and the pace at which we’ve been able to come back and reduce our deficit, there’s nothing to say that we can’t achieve it (the title) next year,” Russell said in an interview with Motorsport.

“We have been clear for about two months now about the goals we need to achieve in terms of development. And I’m pretty confident that if we achieve that, we’ll have a car that we can compete with Red Bull,” he explained.

Russell then also mentioned that Mercedes’ good form at the end of the season was in stark contrast to the extent of the difficulties the team faced at the start of 2022.

“I remember finishing fourth in Imola, but I was on the same pace as Lando (Norris) and Valtteri (Bottas) was chasing me in the Alfa. They were faster than us in that race. But when you look at us now and where we are compared to those cars, which probably haven’t gone through a similar development as Ferrari and Red Bull, we’ve made a huge step forward.”

Finally, the Mercedes driver added that he believes in his team and given the pace of development of the cars, he hopes they will challenge for the title this year.

F1, Motorsport, Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1