George Russell still thinks Red Bull is the measure of all things, while Mercedes continues to try and catch up with the competition – Courage looking to the future
Does McLaren now have the fastest car or is Red Bull still the measure of all things? If you believe Lando Norris, then McLaren had the upper hand in Barcelona – he just didn’t manage to turn the pace into a win himself with his botched start
But for George Russell, it is clear that Max Verstappen did not lay all his cards on the table in Spain: “I think he had the fastest car,” says the Mercedes driver. “If you look at his pace, it was very controlled in the first stint.”
Verstappen managed “probably six tenths a lap” in the fast corners, “and if you have that buffer, then you can manage the tires better,” says Russell. “Lando caught up with him, but he just turned it up when he had to.”
For Russell, it’s clear: “Max is one of the best drivers of all time, but the package between him and the team is like Lewis [Hamilton] in the Mercedes era.” In other words, everything is simply coming together perfectly, making it difficult for the competition to stop the run again.
“We just have to keep pushing,” he says.
Mercedes have not been able to do this in recent months, but they now seem to be working their way back to the front. In Canada, the Silver Arrows had a realistic chance of winning and made it onto the podium for the first time in the 2024 Formula 1 season – the second followed in Spain.
“We finished I don’t know how many seconds behind the win – 20 or so, which is a lot,” he says. “But we know that we had the fastest car last week. And you don’t have the fastest car every weekend.”
Mercedes feel that they are currently riding a small wave of momentum, he says. “And it’s now up to us to take the next big step with our upgrades. So we feel very confident.”
And that also gives the Englishman hope for the future. Mercedes is currently in fourth place in the championship and will remain there regardless of what happens in Austria. This means that they have more development time than the competition from Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren.
“We know what we need to do to make the big leaps,” says Russell. “We’re looking forward to the rest of the season and hopefully we’ll start winning races now.”
“With the pace we showed last week and the pace we’ve shown this week, we’ve now led two races in two weekends since we’ve had the upgrades. I don’t think we would have expected that at the start of the season. “
