Russell believes that the Mercedes will never be the best car this season

Last Saturday in Hungary, Mercedes secured its first pole position of the season after a more challenging start to the 2022 season than expected. The following day, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell once again achieved a double podium, their second consecutive one. With only 30 points behind Ferrari, the Silver Arrows are in excellent form.

Given the stark difference in pure performance between the F1-75 and the W13, this slight gap may seem miraculous. Even though part of this can be explained by the struggles of the Italian team, the optimization by Toto Wolff and his team is simply remarkable, taking advantage of every tiny opportunity that comes their way.

But despite impressive consistent results, it is clear that the Mercedes still lacks pure performance. « We are closing the gap, there is no doubt, but the four cars ahead of us still have an advantage, » observes George Russell.

If the development shows real encouraging progress for the second part of the season, Russell believes that Mercedes will never be the best force on the grid this year, while still believing in victories in the remaining nine Grand Prix. We still believe that we will probably be able to fight for victories at some point this season. But I think we will never have the fastest car.

If Mercedes manages to have one (or even both) of their drivers on the podium in the next six races, it seems like they still have a long way to go to compete for wins on a regular basis. However, if Ferrari doesn’t resolve its issues in the second half of the season, the team based in Brackley could come and disrupt the party for the second place in the constructors’ championship.