George Russell defends himself against claims Mercedes are having a poor 2023 season – Minor injuries in summer water sports
For Formula 1 stars, the summer break is the time when they can recover from the stressful daily routine of the season and do what they otherwise don’t have time for – or what they’d better keep their hands off during the season. That’s what George Russell did, too, and devoted more time to action sports during his holidays – especially in the water.
“I never wanted to do any other sports, especially not during the season – in case you get injured,” says the Mercedes driver, and yet during the summer break he stood on a flyboard or a foilboard, among other things, and got more than a scratch.
“I just wanted to try something new,” he admits. “There were a few injuries, but I’m back to full strength and looking forward to the weekend.”
The injuries, however, are no more than a few minor things when you fall off the board – even if heckling at the press conference suggests that it was probably the ego that suffered the most. “Yeah, there’s a couple of videos I didn’t post where I really fell off,” Russell smiles.
“But I had fun,” he says.” It’s like that for a lot of us: you’re so focused all year. If you just have two weeks where you don’t do anything, eventually you get bored. It was pretty fulfilling for me to make some progress and not fall on the last few days. “
Crazy who you bump into on holiday! Thanks for the invite @MartinGarrix pic.twitter.com/eGs8EAZHPi
– George Russell (@GeorgeRussell63) August 11, 2023
In Ibiza, the Mercedes driver also met his colleagues Daniel Ricciardo and Logan Sargeant, with whom he had fun at a party or two. But Russell laughs: “Daniel behaved in an exemplary manner, I was very impressed. Daniel had partied enough in the six months before. It was a nice week. “
Place two is not a failure
Now, however, everyone is back at Zandvoort to face the seriousness of life and the second half of the season again. Ten races remain in this season to bring out the best possible – and in Mercedes’ case that means second place.
Red Bull is already too far behind in the championship, but behind them things are looking good for the Silver Arrows: they already have a 51-point lead over Aston Martin, who occupy third place, so despite the winless season, the Briton resists statements that Mercedes is having a bad season.
Really fun times trying some new things. I’ve never been very comfortable in water but have enjoyed pushing myself outside my comfort zone. A few small bruises later, we’re away! pic.twitter.com/OzagZOl3pM
– George Russell (@GeorgeRussell63) August 9, 2023
“There are high expectations on us before a season and that’s why our season is bad in some people’s eyes,” he said. “Of course we are far from where we wanted to be because we want to fight for championships, but to call second place with 50 points ahead of third place a failure is far from reality.”
Still, they would obviously like to win another race in the second half of the season, “but Max [Verstappen] and Red Bull are very strong,” Russell knows. With Red Bull having won every race so far this year, Mercedes may have no choice but to put themselves in the best possible position in case the Bulls do leave something behind.
The second fastest car? Russell waves it off…
Having the second-fastest car would help with that, but that Mercedes also has the second-fastest car is not something Russell would see. “It’s very close between us, Aston Martin, Ferrari and McLaren,” he says.
However, he says Mercedes has the advantage of being the most consistent chaser of all the teams. “The team has done a good job of getting the best possible points haul. I’m not going to sit down and say we’re the second fastest team. I’m not sure about that, but we are in a strong position to secure second place,” Russell said.
And that is also the primary goal in the remaining races: To secure second place. A good result at Zandvoort this weekend could help. The omens are not so bad: With second position, Russell had his best result here last year apart from the victory in Brazil.
The Briton sees “no reason” why Mercedes should not be competitive in the Netherlands. “On the high-downforce tracks we seem to be quite good. We were quick in Budapest and we were one of the most competitive here last year,” he says.
“We don’t know what the weekend will bring, though. The weather looks changeable once again, but regardless of the conditions I feel we can have a strong weekend. “
