George Russell says Mercedes may have to “sacrifice” entire F1 season
Even before the first race of this year, team principal Toto Wolff responded to 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lewis Hamilton’s pessimism ꦅover the W🔥14’s concept by conceding that the entire car must be reconsidered immediately.
Hamilton finished fifth in Bahrain, Russell was seventh, and neither were close to the race-winning pace set by Red Bull’s 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Max Verstappen.
Russell thinks Mercedes’ plans to fight for the 2024 championship shou𒐪ld begin now: “We’re here to win and we obviously want to optimise every single result.
"But if you give me a choice between fighting and having a chance to win races whenever that is, versus slow progress and never having that chance, you obvi🌌ously choose taking those victories.
“So if we’ve got to sacrifice some races or part of a season to give ourselves a chance to 🙈get a car that can fight, whether it’s the second half of the season or even if it’s looking towards next year, maybe that’s what we’re going to h👍ave to do because clearly we are a long way behind.”
Russell believes that competition for Red Bull pair Verstappen and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Sergio Perez will only flee✤tingly come on Saturdays and p☂otentially never on Sundays.
“Red Bull have got this championship sewn up🅷,” Rus🥃sell said.
“I don’t think anybody is🐼 going to be fighting with them this year and I expect them to win.
“They should win every single race this season is my bet. With the performance they’ve got, I don’t see anybody challenging. They ha🔯ve got it easy at the moment. They can do what they like.
“They might not get on pole all of the time because we know that Ferrari are very competitive in qualifyin෴g. But when it comes to race pace I think they’re in a very strong position.”
Russell was responsible for Mercedes’ sole grand prix win of 2022, at the penultimate attempt in Brazil. He finished ahead of teammate Hamilton who spent the early part of last season testing how th✃e team could rid themselves of porpoising, then went winless for the first time in his career.
One race into 2023, the feeling of pessimism♔ with💦in Mercedes has only grown.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade cov൩ering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
