Mercedes advances in development race
Starting the second half of the 1 season in Formula 2023, 10 points behind Aston Martin, as the runner-up in the constructors' championship, Mercedes made progress in the development race.
The young driver of the team, George Russell, said that he is satisfied with the distance they have covered as a team, but there is still a lot of work to be done.
"Obviously we had a lot of expectations going into the season and maybe that's why people are calling our season a bit of a failure," said Russell. said.
“Of course, we are far from where we want to be because we want to fight for the title, so calling second place a success is far from reality.”
“We know we have a lot to improve. We've made really good progress and I think as we enter the second half of the season, we may be in a position to pick up any crumbs that come our way."
Russell said that as a team, they will see every race as an opportunity and want to keep moving forward.
“We want to keep moving forward. I think we are in a good position, like second place in the constructors' championship.”
"We've made progress in the fight against Aston Martin, McLaren is obviously looking pretty strong."
“However, we want to continue to evolve. Obviously we would love to win a race this year but Max [Verstappen] and Red Bull are really strong.”
Russell, who was runner-up at Zandvoort last year, said he would like to see a similar opportunity this year.
“We tend to perform well on circuits with high downforce.”
“We were fast in Budapest. This was probably one of our most competitive circuits last year, along with Brazil.”
“But we don't know what the weekend will bring. Changing conditions seem to be taking effect once again.”
"But it doesn't matter - I feel like we can have a strong weekend no matter the conditions."