George Russell has declared Mercedes “closer than ever” to their competitors – but agrees with Lewis Hamilton that there is more work to be done.
The two drivers who are of British origin are the most recent Formula 1 race winners, having taken victory in Austria and at Silverstone.
They head into this weekend’s Budapest race with confidence sky high, but remain realistic about going up against championship leader Max Verstappen and their compatriot Lando Norris.
Russell said: “This championship, Max is already way out in front and Lando is in a pretty solid P2. The goal for us for the rest of the year is to just try to win as many more races as possible. Of course, we’ve closed this gap massively and we’ve had two really great races in the last four.
“But, still, when you look at it, Max has won two of those races and finished second in another – should have finished second in Austria. So it’s not been a bad run of form for those guys either.
“We’re no doubt closer than ever. We just need to see if this race weekend, and in Spa… if we have two good race weekends here then we’ll be fast everywhere. We said that at Silverstone but, if we can achieve it again for these next two, we’ll be there for the rest of the season.”
Hamilton concurred and added: “It’s game on – we’re fighting, we’re chasing and we’re going to try to win as many races or compete for as many wins as possible. It may turn out this weekend that the Red Bull is still ahead, or the McLaren is this weekend. Who knows?
“But what we’ve shown over the past few races is that, with determination, with real focus and persistence, chasing perfection and improvement, you can make a difference.
“We are united as a team and we’re going to try to make sure we finish this season on a high. And if we can lift the team up in the constructors’ ladder and if we can progress enough – we’re not too far off the drivers ahead of us – then that’ll be great.”
Red Bull have dominated F1 under the current ruleset but have now seen the likes of McLaren and Ferrari, as well as Mercedes, close the performance gap. And Verstappen remains baffled as to how that has happened.
He said: “It’s very difficult to know why or how – we’re just focused on what we can control and will try to do the best we can. Hopefully, this weekend we’ll push ourselves a little bit forward.
“We need more pace – we’re just lacking pure pace. When you are trying to compensate for pure pace then of course, naturally, you have more tyres wear and it’s more difficult to find the sweet spot of the car. Overall pace will help!”
