Despite premature end to his 2023 Australian F1 GP, George Russell proud of Mercedes’ performance: “We’ve improved the car a lot”

George Russell experienced a wide range of emotions in Australia this year. He surprised everyone by qualifying second and started the race on Sunday (April 2) aggressively, taking the lead from Max Verstappen on the opening lap.

However, Russell's luck deserted him soon after. With a safety car deployed following Alex Albon's crash, he took the chance to pit on Lap 8. That safety car soon turned into a red flag, which dropped Russell to P7 when the race restarted.

Although the Mercedes driver fought his way to P5, his race soon went up in fire, literally, on Lap 18 as a power unit issue forced him to retire. It was his first retirement since the 2022 British Grand Prix.

Speaking after the 2023 Australian GP, Russell expressed his disappointment with the result. He said (via the official F1 website):

“I guess when it’s not your day, it’s not your day, and pretty disappointed initially with the decision to red flag the race. Everything we’ve done this weekend has been good: qualifying was great, the start was great, the restart was great, the strategy decision was the right one. It’s just such a shame to be stood here right now.”

That said, the young Briton took pride in the fact that the Silver Arrows were “clearly the second-fastest team” in Melbourne. He stated:

“I think Red Bull’s a little bit out of the picture at the moment. We need to continue focusing on ourselves. We’ve improved the car a lot, even though we haven’t brought any upgrades to the car, and we’ve got to take satisfaction in that we were clearly the second-fastest team this weekend.”

The 25-year-old added:

“But then I also take pride in the fact that the performance we did throughout has been pretty spot on these last two weekends, in terms of everything we as a team and I felt as a driver we could have done, we did. And I guess that’s all you can do sometimes.”

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“Probably the best F1 car I've ever driven” - George Russell on the Mercedes W14

George Russell has credited the Mercedes W14 as the best car he has raced.

Mercedes shocked the F1 world in Australia this weekend. After looking like they had the fourth-fastest package in the first race of the season in Bahrain, they were clearly the second-fastest team in Melbourne.

Speaking about the progress made by Mercedes, Russell stated that it all came down to the team's ability to put everything together and maximize what was available.

During a press conference at Albert Park, he said:

“I think the feeling of the car is not the limitation, to be honest. The car feels pretty decent. It's probably the best F1 car I've ever driven, or raced, sorry – probably excluding the obvious 2020 experience with Mercedes.

"But we're just lacking a bit of downforce. We know we've made some huge gains over the past two or three weeks in the wind tunnel, and hopefully we'll be bringing that to the track sooner rather than later.”