While the Silver Arrows may still find themselves trailing behind the dominant Red Bull team, recent improvements to their aerodynamic package have injected a renewed sense of competitiveness.
Lewis Hamilton, with three podium finishes in the last four races, currently occupies the fourth spot in the standings with 121 points.
His sights are set on closing the gap to his old adversary, Fernando Alonso, who sits ahead of him. However, George Russell has faced challenges in recapturing his peak form, finding himself 39 points behind Hamilton.
While acknowledging that he hasn’t reached his peak performance, George Russell exudes unwavering self-assurance and belief in his own abilities.
“I think sometimes it’s important not to overthink things – just go back to basics and work on the processes with the team,” he remarked.
“What I need as a driver is to maximise my performance and what I’m looking for from the car and just not to overthink things. I know that when I tick all of those boxes, I can beat anybody on this grid and I think it’s important that you do tick those boxes.”
Russell expressed his unwavering aspiration to match and exceed the results set by Hamilton.
He continued: “We [drivers] often fall into a trap of wanting to do more work on finer details and work even harder. Sometimes you overcomplicate things and it’s counterproductive. So it’s striking that right balance because I’m always striving for more.”
Amidst acknowledging his own recent performance dip, Russell finds himself further hindered by the development direction taken by his team.
Ahead of the Silverstone race, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, openly admitted that the front wing upgrade introduced for that weekend was tailored to accommodate Hamilton’s unique driving style.
“There are some items we brought here to try to adapt the car a bit more towards Lewis’ style, but he’s very pragmatic,” he said. “He’s taking a long-term view on this and he’s very focused on what is it I need to look at to test to try and find the improvements.”
