"If we don’t manage to find some improvements there’s no way we’ll be in with a shot of fighting for this championship" - George Russell warns Mercedes to improve itself for 2022 season

George Russell believes if Mercedes do not improve, fighting for a championship will be a far cry. The Mercedes driver, however, believes that there will be a turnaround in their performance in the near future.

Speaking after the Saudi Arabian GP, the Mercedes driver said:

“It’s two races. We’re definitely not out of it but if we don’t manage to find some improvements there’s no way we’ll be in with a shot of fighting for this championship. We’re definitely not giving up, we have come away from the first two races as the third-best team.”

The Briton feels his team needs to improve to have a fair shot at the title, or fighting for a championship could become a far fetched glory. Currently, the Silver Arrows squad remains the third fastest team on the grid, but are far off from their dominant reign in the previous era.

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George Russell believes Mercedes can still turnaround their performance

Riddled with porpoising problems and balance issues, the Mercedes W13 has been deemed ‘undriveable’ several times by both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. The latter has revealed that resolving their porpoising issues might be the solution to most of their performance woes. George Russell also believes that there is room for improvement in the near future.

Hoping for improvement in the future, the former Mercedes junior driver said:

“I don’t know what the championship looks like but even if we continue like this for the next five, six, seven or eight races we’re still going to be within touching distance. There’s no reason why we can’t overturn it so we need to see how things look by the time we get to halfway through the season and ultimately everything can change.”

On a fast street circuit like the Jeddah Corniche, driving the W13 was challenging throughout the weekend and the performance deficit was more evident. According to the Briton, the problem could take several races or even the entire season to resolve. If they resolve their performance issues early enough, however, Russell believes they could be on par with their rivals in the next six races at the minimum.