George Russell feels a win was on the table at the 2023 F1 Australian GP

Mercedes driver George Russell was confident of a race victory in Melbourne after an extremely strong start if it wasn't for his engine failure early in the race.

The race weekend at the Australian GP was looking extremely good for George Russell after his P2 qualification for the race. The race start was completely in his hands as he went ahead of the race leader and had a much more competitive pace throughout the weekend.

RacingNews365 quoted him as saying:

"I felt really, really comfortable with how strong the pace has been been, it's been great all weekend. When you look at it, every time we've done something, we've maximised it. We had a great qualifying, the start was great and the first stint was really well managed."

A safety car was soon released after Alex Albon crashed. Seeing the moment, Russell pitted to keep his track position. However, after he pitted, the race was red-flagged and stopped, which left him quite behind the field after all of the cars were fitted with newer tires.

Despite this, Russell feels that he could have extended that stint on hard tires considerably longer if he had the chance to keep teammate Lewis Hamilton behind him.

"I could have extended the first stint quite a lot, and obviously Lewis was pushing really hard behind me, but seeing the tyres afterwards, I would have probably been good thereafter."

Unfortunately, for him, though, the race changed for him only for the worse. On lap 18, George Russell's engine had an issue and his car dramatically caught fire, marking his retirement from the race.

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George Russell feels Verstappen wouldn't have overtook him because of his teammate's support

Although George Russell is aware of Max Verstappen's pace in contrast to his, he feels that the Dutchman wouldn't have been able to overtake him during the race.

Russell's teammate, Lewis Hamilton, finished the race P2, right behind Verstappen. For this reason, the Briton is of the belief that Verstappen couldn't have overtaken him because Hamilton could have given him a fight.

"I see no reason why we couldn't have won today because, looking at the pace of Max, I'm sure he was just managing, but it would have been difficult for him to pass especially with Lewis between the two of us."

This was Russell's second DNF since joining Mercedes. Though this engine failure was surprising, the team still had quite a positive weekend with a P2 finish for Hamilton after the first disappointing races of the season.