George Russell makes controversial statement on his own qualifying performance

George Russell hasn’t disappointed in his first full season for Mercedes in 2022. But the Brit has admitted that his drop in form has been an issue.

Speaking to The Race after qualifying at COTA, Russell opened up about his form in recent races, which he himself has called “disappointing”.

“I’m not going to be celebrating because I’m half a tenth off and definitely a bit disappointed with that. It’s been a tricky couple of races for me for various reasons.”

“I’ve got to be honest, we don’t really know exactly what it is and I think we had such a clean run of form and there were no issues, no little problems whatsoever with the car, [then] we got to Singapore and had a bit of a problem with the brakes and that was a reoccurrence in Japan.”

Russell is currently P4 in the drivers’ standings – 27 points clear of teammate Lewis Hamilton.

“I don’t quite feel at the level that I probably was earlier in the season.”

“I’m here to win and I want to win races, I want to be on pole position, and I want to fight for championships.”

If Russell is able to regain some of his previous form, he’ll become only the third driver to beat out Hamilton as his teammate in the season standings.

When asked what it would mean to beat his teammate in his first season for the team, Russell added “If you asked me that at the start of the season, I probably would’ve said it means everything because if you beat Lewis Hamilton it probably means you’re going to be world champion.”

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