© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
George Russell attended the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix Thursday Drivers’ Press Conference. Here is the full transcript!
Q: I’m going to start with George Russell. George, how are you? What’s the mood in the camp?
George RUSSELL: I guess the mood in the camp is good. It was a good test, we learnt a lot. I think we learned that obviously Red Bull are looking really, really strong. But equally, we feel like we’ve got a lot of room that we can improve. Probably brought up a little bit more pace this weekend after the learnings of testing. But it’s going to be for sure a challenging weekend if we want to try and fight for that victory. But we probably knew that ahead of season, starting off where we do.
Q: Now, you started last year slowly, you then ended it strongly. Have you been able to carry that momentum over the winter?
GR: Yeah, I think the fact is, we’ll find out this weekend where we fall out. I think testing is obviously a good indication for all of us. But the fact is, until we get to qualifying, and we get to the race, we’ll have no idea. And I think some teams were surprising, how their performance was. I think some teams were very fast on a single lap. Some teams look faster in the long run. But I think it’s important to remember we all try and design a car that’s fastest across the 23 race season and Bahrain is definitely a bit of an outlier. So, I don’t think the picture of this weekend will be the full picture for the whole season.
Q: But for Mercedes, it was a test last week of fluctuating fortunes, wasn’t it? Day Two was problematic. What does that tell us about the car?
GR: I mean, it probably wasn’t the smoothest three days we could have hoped for. But I think the lessons we learned from the test… I went back to the to the UK I was on the simulator and the learnings, the findings we found I think is going to put us in better stead for this weekend. But I think it’s definitely fair to say Red Bull are in a bit of a league of their own this weekend here in Bahrain, but I think it would probably be a nice fight for second place, probably between Ferrari and Aston Martin.
Q: Now, George, it’s year two for you at Mercedes. How do you feel you’ve grown as a driver over the last 12 months?
GR: Yeah, I think last year was a really good year for development and understanding how a team like Mercedes operates. They work on such a high level, the engineering talent they’ve got there is exceptional and I feel fortunate being in a team such as this. So it’s a new year, new challenges, new opportunities and looking forward to see what we can we can do this year.
Q: Feet firmly under the table now?
GR: Absolutely.
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QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) George, taking into account what you said about Bahrain being an outlier: if Red Bull are, as many in the paddock seem to think, at least half a second a lap quicker than everybody else this weekend, what realistic reason is there to believe that they can be challenged this year?
GR: Yeah, I think the way you saw our development last year with Mercedes was pretty, pretty spectacular over the course of a year. I think even the improvements we’re going to probably bring to the car this weekend compared to the test will take us a step closer. But as I said, it’s a very unique circuit here in in Bahrain. I’ll be surprised if the gaps are that large at other circuits but you know, I trust in our team and if we develop at the same rate as we did last year, we’re definitely starting from a higher point. But I think the good thing is here there’s not too many races at the start of the season so it gives us some time to develop in the windtunnel and back at the factory to fight for when the main block of races come.
Q: (Alex Kalinauckas – Autosport) Again, a question to Max, Charles and to George, please. There’s been a lot of interest in how well the Aston Martin was running throughout testing. I just wondered, based on what your teams have been saying to the three of you what do you think the green cars could achieve on Sunday or this weekend overall?
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, they looked very positive. In general, if you look at the team, they have a real desire, of course of getting to the front. They’ve hired I think quite a lot of good people. So it will be interesting to see where they will be but also not only now, it’s in the coming races and years, but I think they had a very positive start.
Charles LECLERC: Yeah, I think they will be in the mix. They will definitely fight at the top at least, I think
GR: Yeah, nothing more to add, really.
Q: (Ian Parkes – New York Times) George, if you are to join Red Bull’s league, if they are in a league of their own at the moment, what do you need to see on the car and what do you need to feel from the car for you to be able to bridge that gap?
GR: Naturally, everybody’s always looking for more downforce. And I think the tricky thing with these new regulations of cars… is trying to get the car as low as possible and gaining that downforce, probably being a little bit more efficient in the straight line Red Bull have been very strong generally speaking in their drag, I think we may have made a small step improvement this weekend so I hope that is reflected in the speed traps and that’s almost a bit of free lap time. But you know, I think we need to trust in our process. Mercedes have built a World Championship-winning car for eight seasons in a row. We’ve still fundamentally got all of the same guys there and they haven’t just forgotten how to build a fast race car. I think we were obviously on the backfoot following the challenges of the W 13 but I absolutely believe as the season progresses, we’re definitely going to close that gap. And there’s no reason why we can’t fight as the season hots up.
Q: (Silja Rulle – Bild) George, what has it been like so far working with Mick Schumacher as your reserve driver in the team?
GR: Yeah, obviously, early days, but Mick’s really integrating well into the team. He’s really willing. He’s helping wherever possible. He was out on track quite a lot last week, just watching and analysing how the cars seemed off track and feeding that back into engineers and doing the necessary work in the simulator. So he’s been a real benefit, a real help to us. And yeah, I hope he gets his chance back in Formula 1 next year, but if he keeps on putting in the work, he will get that opportunity again, for sure.
Q: (Phuong Nguyen Viet, K+ Vietnam) George, last year you had one race win for Mercedes with a car that wasn’t good enough. This year, the car has been much more comfortable. How many races do you think you will get on top?
GR: That’s a very challenging question, I think. You know, when we look at where we were this time last year, we had so many problems with the car that we didn’t know how to resolve. We thought we’d resolve them a little bit quicker than we did, maybe after six races we thought we would resolve them but realistically, it took until probably Austin maybe, until we took a big step forward. And now we’re starting from a base which is fundamentally a lot better than we were last year. So I think, if we managed to achieve a race win last year, starting from such a low, low point, there’s no reason why we can’t achieve more victories but as I said, it’s a relative game. Red Bull are looking really strong and we’ve got a little bit of catching up to do.
Q: (Cezary Gutowski – Media CEG) George, like you did win the Mercedes on your race last year, you did won the pole position. You beat Lewis in the standings. How does it make you feel in terms of an intra-team challenge battle with Lewis this year?
GR: Yeah, I think those stats against a guy like Lewis are pretty, pretty irrelevant. He’s achieved 100 and more poles and victories, and last year was a very challenging car to drive. For sure, I was pleased with my own personal performance. I think the qualifying pace was, at the end of the year, we were basically on identical race pace, maybe something I want to improve slightly. And I probably improved that towards the end of the year compared to Lewis, but you know, he’s just an animal and he just keeps on fighting. He keeps on going. And you know, he never gives up. So I think he’s going to come back fighting even more last year. And yeah, I’m excited to have that challenge. But ultimately, the two of us are looking for the top step of a podium, but not just the number one spot in the team.
Q: (Alex Kalinauckas – Autosport) George, just thinking back to the data of the test last weekend, and what went wrong with the balance of the car which seemed to sort of disappear? Is there any concerns of the team that this might be another Mercedes that’s a bit of a diva, as it has been talked about in the past, to sort of get the set up right, to keep the balance happy? Or have your investigations sort of suggested that’s going to be okay.
GR: No, I think we had a really good time between the test and the race to analyse what happened throughout the test. There were a few things going on with the car that we didn’t quite expect but we’ve been able to resolve pretty easily. It was just working in slightly the wrong window. So we’ll put that… changing for this weekend, we were running a different rear wing in the Bahrain test just for some correlation work and that wasn’t an optimal rear wing for Bahrain either so there’s definitely positive signs but I’m not going to sit here saying we’re going to find that lap time deficit to Red Bull, but I’m definitely sitting here in a more comfortable place than I probably was on Friday night.
Source: FIA.com
