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George Russell believes Mercedes had the pace to battle with Red Bull ahead of the grid during the Qatar Grand Prix earlier, where he brought in a P4 finish for the team.
The race in Qatar started out rather tough for Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell made contact on the first corner of the opening lap. This resulted in Hamilton retiring instantly and the latter had to pit, which sent him to the back of the grid.
Since the FIA had mandated a pit stop after every 18 laps of the specific tires the drivers were using, it made the strategy options rather hard to choose from.
George Russell battled throughout the race and by the end, he brought home a fourth-place finish for the team as Charles Leclerc followed him up. Ahead of him was the McLaren of Lando Norris, which had an amazing pace and at the top was Max Verstappen, who had won his third F1 World Championship after the Sprint earlier.
Despite the pace that Red Bull had, Russell believes that the team could have fought them for a race win this season. He said to the media post-race:
"I see no reason why not. We believe that we were on pace, if not faster than McLaren."
Fans reacted to his statement on social media and one user mentioned the team had pace but the only reason people will hate his comments is because he is Russell.
"He’ll get hate cuz it’s Russell but I don’t think Merc were far off," the user wrote.
Some even came up with a deep analysis of the events of the Grand Prix to prove Russell wrong.
"With that RB pace? Keep dreaming George. Let's just say Lewis DNFd on his own without crashing into George, and by some miracle, George overtakes Max on lap 1. All it was gonna take was DRs is now active. RB would have obliterated George & that would have been the end of that," one user wrote.
"It's always easy to talk after the fact. Next time go out there and do it, then talk about it," another account wrote.
George Russell aiming to keep up second place in the Constructors' Championship
After Aston Martin's pace fell off and they dropped back to the midfield, a path opened up for both Ferrari and Mercedes as they started battling each other for second place in the Constructors' Championship.
Carlos Sainz's win in Singapore, the same race where George Russell crashed out on the final lap, proved to be a boost for the Italian outfit.
With five races more to go in the season, George Russell mentioned he is now aiming to keep up their place in the standings and finish in second place right behind Red Bull.
"I’ve got one goal, and that’s to finish P2 in the team’s Championship. I still have full faith we’re going to achieve it," the Brit told the media.
There is currently a 28-point gap that separates the two teams with Ferrari in third place and there has been a tough battle going on between the two. There could be a competitive finish to the season for both teams, and their battle could go on till the final race in Abu Dhabi.
