Russell sees McLaren staying at the front: 'Why not?'

F1 News

george russell on British Grand Prix 2023
9 July 2023 at 18:31
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  • Kada Sarkozi
  • Editor

Mercedes had it right after the first free practice sessions on Friday: over one lap the car of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell was not fast enough to compete at the top. Over race distance, however, the Mercedes was strong enough to compete for the top three spots. With a fine performance, Hamilton managed to drive to place three in front of his home crowd, where he was joined by a McLaren driver.

That English team introduced updates in Austria and also for Silverstone, which have not missed their effect. So for Mercedes an extra competitor in the sub-top, behind Max Verstappen's unapproachable Red Bull Racing. Now it remains to be seen whether McLaren can maintain the upward trend (or at least its current form) over a longer period of time.

Mercedes looks to itself

"I see no reason why they shouldn't be up there now," Russell said about McLaren's performance. "we've come from Red Bull Ring, which is a very different circuit to Silverstone. And as I said, they were a small step ahead of us on both occasions. Yeah, I don't know how they've found this much performance. It's been quite surprising."

Mercedes had hoped to have taken steps forward after its own updates, but they do not appear to be structural. As pointed out, there was a big difference between qualifying and Sunday's race at Silverstone, for example. Russell therefore told: "We don't tend to focus too much on our competitors. We just need to keep focusing on ourselves. Yes, it gives inspiration, but it can be possible. We need to try and turn it up and we need to find more performance and quick."