Mercedes driver George Russel on Sunday finished in fourth place at Emilia Romagna Grand Prix while his teammate, Lewis Hamilton only finished in 13th place.
Russell has now slipped to fourth in the driver standings but is out-performing the seven-time world championship Hamilton, who is in seventh.
“I think that’s just the way things sometimes turn out on a race weekend. I got off to a very good start.” Russell told Autosport.
“I don’t know what happened with Lewis at the start, but we also fight, and when the car is so far from the lead and it’s not in the right window, we don’t have not feel like driving a race car. And above all, we have trouble with the warming up of the tyres.
“On Friday it was 13 degrees and it was a nightmare to ride. I expect him to come back very strong, and the way he pushes and motivates the team is inspiring. I am not comfortable with this position, because I know what he is capable of.” Russell added.
Mercedes is struggling to get consistent performance out of its W13 challenger, which has been suffering from severe porpoising.
The German manufacturer is desperately trying to work out what it can do to make the car work, in reality, the way it does in its simulations.
Russell hadn’t fared too well in either Friday qualifying, 11th as neither Mercedes made it to Q3, nor the Sprint, where he finished 11th again to start from that grid slot on Sunday.
“As a team, it’s just a really difficult position, and maybe to some extent the very difficult cars I drove at Williams helped me.” Russell said.
“Now Q1 and Q2 are very important, whereas before it was just a formality for Mercedes. It was almost a warm-up to be ready for Q3.
“Like I said, Lewis will come back incredibly stronger, I have no doubt, and he will push me all the way ,” Russell added.
