"We can come back fighting" - George Russell optimistic of Mercedes' chances of bouncing back from disappointment in the season so far

George Russell strongly believes Mercedes will soon be able to get themselves back at the top to fight the likes of Ferrari and Red Bull. The reigning world champions have had a rough start to the much-anticipated 2022 F1 season.

As reported by GPFans, the Mercedes driver believes the team is already doing their best to extract all that they can with their car. Russell was strongly hoping for a comeback in the championship sooner rather than later and said:

“We need to be in almost damage limitation mode at the moment, pick up the pieces, when there’s an opportunity, don’t throw away unnecessary points, even though it may just be for fifth or sixth or hopefully, a bit higher, and make sure we were within touching distance always. Then, hopefully, when the car does improve, we can come back fighting.”

Commenting on the season so far and his expectations for the rest of the year, Russell added, saying:

“It’s a very long season, I think we’ve all got confidence that if we do things right, there’s no reason why we can’t close the gap and potentially overtake [the top two teams]. But we equally appreciate and recognise that Ferrari and Red Bull will continuously improve as well. So, we could close up by six-tenths [but] there’s no reason why they can’t extend by another six-tenths as well.”

George Russell has had a decent start to the season. He even outperformed his team-mate, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, in the last race in Saudi Arabia by a significant margin.

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George Russell hopes that the 23-race season allows scope to improve for Mercedes

For the first time in F1 history, the 2022 calendar comprises 23 races. George Russell hopes that this will give the team enough time to catch up to the pace of the top teams. The young Briton said:

“I think in Formula 1, things change incredibly quickly. We are very fortunate that the calendar is not, as I said before, it’s not very dense at the start of this season. Even if it’s a couple of months, we are only six or seven races down and out of a 23-race season. Even if you come out the blocks incredibly fast after the summer break, even as Mercedes and Lewis did last year, you’re still in with a shot.”

The 24-year-old has entered his first season as a Mercedes driver and is desperate to be at the point where he has the championship-winning car he has always hoped for.