George Russell praised Mercedes’ group unity after the group ended a largely barren two-and-a-half years by scoring back-to-back wins within the final two rounds.
Mercedes struggled within the first two seasons beneath the present technical rules, profitable only a single grand prix late in 2022. Nevertheless, following an overhaul of its automobile design this 12 months, and a sequence of developments because the season started, Russell claimed victory within the Austrian Grand Prix on the finish of final month. Lewis Hamilton adopted that up by profitable at Silverstone per week later.
Russell, who’s in his third season at Mercedes, stated he was impressed how little had modified behind the scenes to attain the turnaround, and gave credit score to group principal Toto Wolff.
“We’ve stayed as one as a group,” he informed the official F1 channel. “All people caught collectively. There’s been no main modifications inside the organisation of Mercedes.
“You’ve acquired to present credit score to Toto for believing in his folks and simply giving them an opportunity to do what they do finest. I believe that’s one thing that units this group other than many others.
“Up to now it looks as if we’ve executed a extremely nice job of that so we’re simply hoping to proceed on this journey.”
Probably the most important change to Mercedes’ technical division throughout that point got here befell in April final 12 months. James Allison, who had been the group’s technical director till early 2021, returned to the function, swapping locations with earlier alternative Mike Elliott, who turned chief technical officer. Elliott left Mercedes six months later.
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Regardless of Mercedes’ features in current races, Russell doesn’t see them as potential championship challengers. They’re already 152 factors behind Purple Bull with 573 out there, and he trails Max Verstappen by 144 factors within the drivers’ championship.
Nevertheless he’s hopeful Mercedes shall be common contenders for victory over the remainder of the 12 months.
“Already Max is a great distance out in entrance and Lando’s in a reasonably strong P2,” stated Russell. “However I believe the aim for us for the remainder of the 12 months is simply to attempt to win as many extra races as potential.
“In fact we’ve closed this hole massively, we’ve had two actually nice races within the final 4. However nonetheless, once you have a look at it, Max has nonetheless gained two of these races, completed second in one other, ought to have completed second in Austria. It’s not been a foul run of kind for these guys both.
“So we’re little doubt nearer than ever. We simply must see this race weekend, and in Spa, I believe if we’ve got two good race weekends right here, we’ll be quick in every single place. We stated that in Silverstone, but when we will obtain it once more these subsequent two, I believe we’ll be there for the remainder of the season.”
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