George Russell, Mercedes’ driver, considers 2023 Formula 1 season as “one of the worst” of his racing career. The Mercedes squad dropped off through the Abu Grand Prix, which added insult to injury of already miserable drivers.
Russell claims to have a realistic opportunity of pole position at Yas Marina circuit. He topped the final practice session of Saturday afternoon. However, could not manage better than fourth lagging 0.343 second of Red Bull polesitter, Max Verstappen.
The British driver believes fourth place as an achievement if considered in isolation. He reckoned such a result on a “strange day” with no considerable grip on W14 is an achievement.
He said: “A strange day, to be honest. I think ahead of this weekend, we’d have definitely taken a P4.
“I felt good in the car but after this morning, we seemed really strong and we thought probably pole was possible. But we went out for Q1 and we just didn’t have the same grip as we had earlier.”
At the end of season finale, Russell signed off on his “one of the worst seasons” of his career.
Russell longed for a better position through out the season. He said: “I want to finish the season on a high.
“It’s been probably one of the worst seasons of my career in terms of results. It’s just been just a really scrappy, messy season.
“I don’t think it’s been through a lack of speed. We’ve had really strong pace in many, many races but just never achieved that result on a Sunday.”
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Russell believes that Mercedes has a huge underlying problem which resulted in disappointing season.
He continued: “There’s a reason every single race [for the issues], whether it’s me crashing into a wall [to lose third place on the final lap in Singapore] or the rain coming down in Zandvoort on the wrong lap or the engine breaking down in Melbourne.
“It’s just tiny little things which you can say ‘Easy to rectify that’.
“But when it happens once or twice, you can put it down to bad luck. When it happens on maybe nine, 10, 11 occasions throughout the year, it’s definitely not luck.
“Ultimately, the car isn’t quick enough. We need to keep on pushing. When the competition’s so high, one small mistake and you drop a number of places.”
