“It's not going to change the world for us”: George Russell wary of Mercedes ability to compete with Red Bull despite upgrades

Mercedes driver George Russell has said that the upgrade package the team has planned for Imola might not be enough to close the gap on runaway leaders Red Bull.

The German team have made a better start to their 2023 season following their struggles to contend for wins and podiums last year. They are P3 in the championship, behind Red Bull and Aston Martin and ahead of Ferrari.

In their bid to challenge the world champions, Russell told Motorsport.com:

"Imola is a new weekend. We'll have some new bits on the car. Hopefully, that's positive. It's not going to change the world for us in the short term, butm hopefully, it's a step in the right direction.

"I think we can't get carried away ourselves. We eneed to do the talking on the track. We need to see how the upgrades perform when we get there. Fingers crossed, they're brilliant, but we'll only know that on Friday morning."

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"We've got a lot to improve" - Mercedes driver George Russell

George Russell knows that Mercedes must work a lot to improve and become more competitive against Red Bull. The Briton said:

"I think it's probably because the car is quite challenging to drive at the moment. We've got a lot to improve. As I said, we know where we are at the moment."

Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin also spoke about the upgrades:

"We do hope that it is quicker. We hope that it's better in terms of qualifying and race pace. The key thing though is that we are not just looking to bring a lap time update, we are looking to head off in a different development direction.

"One that we think gives us a better chance in the long term of being able to challenge for race wins and world championships. The Imola package is the first step in that direction. We are hoping to bring other updates later in the year."

However, due to the cancellation of the Imola GP weekend, it will be fascinating to see if the team is planning to bring upgrades to Monaco. The former world champions need to give their drivers, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, a more competitive and faster package to aid them in the fight for P2.