George Russell: Mercedes definitely going to be in a much stronger position from race one in 2023

George Russell, who completed his first season with Mercedes this year, is confident that the Silver Arrows will return to the track in 2023, in a "stronger position". The team secured consecutive championship titles over eight years up until the 2022 season, where they only managed to secure third in the constructors' standings in the end. Thanks to the porpoising issues that came with the interpretation of the new regulations, they had merely one race win to their name.

Speaking to the BBC, Russell admitted that the team simply got the "philosophy" wrong in 2022. He, however, emphasized that he expects Mercedes to catch up with the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari next year to get back into contention for the championship titles. He said:

"They haven't forgotten how to build a fast race car. We just got it wrong this year. We got the philosophy wrong. We went down a route which turned out to be the wrong route. Sometimes it takes you a long time to dig yourself out of that hole. Now I feel we've dug ourselves out of that hole and we're building on top of that. We are a step behind Red Bull and Ferrari and we've got a lot of catching up to do - but we're definitely going to be in a much stronger position from race one next year than we were this year."

George Russell added:

"When you join a team like Mercedes you're expecting victories. I felt ready to fight for race wins and championships this year but you've just got to manage your expectations. You've got to change those sights slightly and it's been really intriguing for me this year, seeing how the team deal with this situation. I'm here for the long haul and even though I wanted victories and [to be] fighting for that championship in 2022, as a team these struggles are going to set us up for the coming years. I hope I look back in 10 years' time and say the 2022 season was a positive one in the journey."

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George Russell says he is "here to win"; less focused on having beaten Lewis Hamilton

In his very first season as a seven-time world champion's teammate, George Russell managed to finish the year 35 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton, two places above him in the drivers' championship. While Russell admitted that this would have been quite an achievement if he had managed to beat Hamilton to the title, he was certainly not the happiest about fighting his teammate for mere 4th and 5th positions. He claimed that his main goal remains to win the championship.

George Russell said:

"If you'd told me at the start of the year that I'd be finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton [in the drivers' standings], I'd have been very happy because nine times out of 10 that probably means you're going to be world champion."

"It's a little bit frustrating that this year wasn't that year. We were both fighting for P4, P5, P6 and we don't want to be in this position, so I'm not going to walk away from this season with huge amounts of pride because I finished fourth in the championship. I'm here to win."

George Russell secured his first-ever F1 race win at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo, while this year, Lewis Hamilton broke his streak of having won at least one race in every season he took part.