George Russell expects to surpass Ferrari in the race

The battle for the title is surely already decided. The two Red Bulls seem to be in a league of their own and are clearly dominating the rest of the field. But the fight for third place is tighter than ever with Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston Martin, and Alpine all stepping up their game in the past few races. Fernando Alonso and his Aston seem to be, for the moment, ahead of the competition. However, in Barcelona, with the updates, things could change.

Improvements in Monaco

That’s at least what George Russell wishes. The British driver, in his Mercedes, hopes that the improvements made in Catalonia by his team will enable him and Lewis Hamilton to take it to the next level.

This weekend will be a big test. We would like to think that we can compete on par with the Ferraris overall and even get closer to Fernando Alonso. He is definitely very fast. We also want to reduce the gap with Red Bull in order to secure the P2 position for the constructor, stated George Russell.

One of the recurring problems of Mercedes this season is its performance in qualifying on Saturdays. The Silver Arrows seem to show weaknesses in qualifying sessions. It’s a problem that George Russell would like to solve in order to aim higher.

I think that when you look at the performance on Saturday, we are significantly behind the Ferraris, the Aston Martins, and even sometimes the Alpines,” observes George Russell, who nonetheless managed to secure a second place on the grid in Australia and a fourth place in Saudi Arabia.

Sunday, a better day

The performances of the Silver Arrows on Sunday allow us to catch up on the season’s results so far. Lewis Hamilton notably managed to secure a second place in Melbourne, in a somewhat crazy Grand Prix. George Russell even believes he is close to the Aston Martins, which he considers to be the second strongest team on the grid. When we look at our performance on race day, I think it brings us closer to the Aston Martins.

Mercedes had nevertheless made improvements in Monaco. These should have already been present in Imola. But due to the cancellation of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, the Silver Arrows were unable to test their updates that had been made. Therefore, it was in Monaco that Mercedes had to assess the modifications made. A situation that is not conducive.

Like everyone says, you can’t really judge something in Monaco. But at least, there haven’t been any bad surprises. We have improved well and I think that’s positive. This weekend will finally be a real test for the new modifications, George Russell said.