© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
George Russell says McLaren’s sudden improvement gives him “inspiration that it can be possible” to quickly catch up, but “we need to try and turn it up”.
After finishing the British Grand Prix in P5, behind Oscar Piastri, George Russell says he is impressed by McLaren’s sudden improvement.
“McLarens were super impressive,” Russell told Sky Sports F1.
“They drove a great race. I feel bad for Oscar because he was driving really, really well. [I’m] being super impressed by what he’s been achieving this year.
“He was deserving of [podium] finisher. Unfortunately, safety car timing that hindered him, and hindered myself. In the end, I think it was a relatively good weekend for us.
“Our pace compared to Ferrari, Aston and Red Bull was probably better than we thought. Those McLarens have just come from nowhere. We don’t really know what to think.”
Later while speaking to the media, the Briton said after the Safety Car period he thought Mercedes will easily get P2 and P3, because they were on soft tyres, while the McLarens were on hards. However, it was not to be.
“I thought it was going to be clear cut, Lewis and I P2 and P3 – see you later. I couldn’t believe how well they turned on the tyres.
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“Perhaps if they put the soft on their car it may not have worked the same way as it worked on ours.Equally if we had the hards on, it probably wouldn’t have worked the same way as it did on their car.
“But [going for] medium/hard was definitely the wrong strategy, the softs were certainly the best tyre. They were a good one-and-a half to two-tenths ahead of us.”
Ultimately, George says McLaren’s sudden improvement is an “inspiration”.
“I see no reason why [McLaren] shouldn’t be up there now. We’ve come from the Red Bull Ring which is a very different circuit to Silverstone, they were a small step ahead of us on both occasions so I don’t know how they’ve found this much performance.
“We don’t tend to focus too much on our competitors, we just need to keep focusing on ourselves. It gives me inspiration that it can be possible [to catch up],
“But we need to try and turn it up,” the Briton concluded.
