"I know what he's capable of" - George Russell expects Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton 'to come back so strong'

George Russell didn't think too much about how Lewis Hamilton's race went at Imola. Instead, the 24-year-old backed his teammate to come back strong in the championship, saying:

“I expect him to come back so strong, and the way he’s pushing and motivating the team is inspiring. I’m not getting comfortable with this position because I know what he’s capable of.”

Russell then went on to speak about his team's woes, saying:

“It’s just been a really difficult position for us as a team, and perhaps with my struggles at Williams driving very difficult cars, maybe that’s helped in some small regard. I think it’s just how things fall out sometimes in a race weekend. I made a very strong start. I don’t know what happened with him [Lewis Hamilton] at the start, but we are equally struggling. And when the car is so far out of bed, and it’s not in the right window, it doesn’t really feel like a proper racing car to drive. And especially we’re struggling with the tyre warm-up. Friday was 13 degrees and it was just a nightmare to drive.”

George Russell admitted that Mercedes had been forced to make a change in its approach this season during qualifying after suffering multiple eliminations before Q3. In the Turbo-Hybrid period, that was never the case as the Mercedes was an extremely competitive piece of machinery that breezed through Q1 and Q2.

The Briton said:

“Q1 and Q2 for us now is massively important, whereas previously for Mercedes that was a breeze, it was almost like a build-up session getting ready for Q3. As I said, Lewis [Hamilton] is going to come back incredibly strong, I have no doubt, and he’s definitely going to push me all the way.”

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George Russell is happy with the results but admits the car needs to improve

George Russell has not finished a race below P5 this season, producing some strong results. While admitting that the results have been encouraging, the Briton admitted that the team needs to make improvements otherwise these results will not be sustainable.

The 24-year-old said:

“In terms of results we’re definitely getting the most out of it and things have definitely fallen our way in these first four races. It gives me and I’m sure it gives the team confidence that when the car improves, we’ll be there to get even more points on the board. But as I said before this weekend, we can’t sustain this level of these results if we don’t improve the pace of the car.”

George Russell is currently 4th in the championship with 49 points in the bag, behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and the two Red Bull drivers.

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