George Russell is happy with his performance so far in 2022, even though Mercedes cannot compete with Ferrari and Red Bull at the moment.
George Russell is happy with his performance so far in 2022, even though Mercedes cannot compete with Ferrari and Red Bull at the moment.
The Briton has already scored 84 points compared to 50 for his teammate Lewis Hamilton and is the only driver to have reached the top five in every GP contested this year.
"If you told me before the season that I wouldn't have any wins after seven races, I would definitely be a bit disappointed," Russell told the media.
"But I think, considering the pace of the car and the team situation, I'm reasonably satisfied with my performance.
"I believe the results were maximized. I don't see many races where I could have achieved better results, but there is definitely room for improvement."
Russell added that he still has ambitions to get into the title fight with the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers.
"You constantly want more when you understand the car and tires better, and I want to fight for this championship," he said.
"Then we will be able to face drivers like Max (Verstappen) at Red Bull and obviously Charles (Leclerc), who is doing an extremely good job with Ferrari at the moment.
"We need to keep pushing ourselves as a team and I have to keep pushing myself personally. So there is more to come."
Despite scoring more points than Hamilton so far, Russell still feels that he could have extracted more from the W13 and did not specifically aim to beat his teammate.
"I focus on myself and try to do the best job I can. Then I analyze where that leaves me," Russell commented.
"Obviously, I believe in myself, but I still have a lot of room for improvement. I don't feel like I'm really optimizing the package."
"Compared to Lewis, I have room for improvement in many aspects and that makes me excited to see what I can achieve a little later in the season."