Mercedes driver George Russell is not having much success this year. However, last year, he beat his teammate Lewis Hamilton, finishing fourth. The seven-time champion finished sixth in 2022. Moreover, Russell won the only race for Mercedes last year at the Brazilian Grand Prix. On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton had a winless season. However, the seven-time champion had more podium finishes than Russell, with nine podiums. George Russell had eight podium finishes but managed to finish at P1 in one of them. Finally, he secured 35 more points than his star teammate in 2022.
Anyhow, the W13 car was so bad that Mercedes had no chance to get back their grip on the title. However, Mercedes is trying their best to hold on to second place in 2023 with W14. There are several competitors for the place behind Red Bull. Ferrari was a threat to Mercedes even before the start of the season. But new threats have been coming up ever since the Monaco Grand Prix, like Alpine, Aston Martin, and new threat McLaren. Can Mercedes stop these threats for the remaining ten races? Only time can conclusively state that. But George Russell shares his idea as to how Mercedes can hold on to the second place.
George Russell Is Confident That Mercedes Can Hold On To Second Place
According to the 25-year-old Mercedes driver George Russell, his team will perform better in the second half of the season when the racing will resume after the summer break. However, Mercedes is 247 points behind their rivals, Red Bull. Albeit, they are gaining more lead over the current third-placed Aston Martin. Currently, Fernando Alonso’s team is 51 points behind Mercedes. In an interview with RaceFans, George Russell mentioned that McLaren had a very good run of form.
Things went McLaren’s way in the last few races before the summer break. But George Russell is confident that Mercedes will bounce back in the second half. Moreover, Russell hints that there will be a few more upgrades to come in the remaining ten races. It is all about increasing the strength of the W14 car to gain more pace and performance over the other cars. Hence, George Russell feels it should not be very difficult to hold on to the second place for Mercedes. Only time will tell if Mercedes ends up finishing in second place or not.
The Return Of Bouncing In Spa Is A Major Concern For Mercedes
Clearly, the German team suffered a lot due to porpoising issues, which caused a lot of bouncing. However, they fixed those issues with the W14 car initially. But last weekend in Spa, Belgium, Mercedes complained that bouncing was back again. It is not a good sign because the team already had too many issues to fix.
But now, bouncing back again will make things so much more challenging. The rear-end downforce has been a constant issue this year with W14 for Mercedes. But Toto Wolff’s team introduced several upgrades since the Monaco Grand Prix. It did show signs of improvement but just was not enough to challenge the dominant team in the present era, Red Bull.
