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George Russell knows things won't be easy for him on race day at the 2022 F1 Hungarian GP despite securing his maiden pole position in the sport.
The Mercedes driver stunned the entire F1 world after pipping Ferrari's Carlos Sainz to pole by a margin of 0.044 seconds to claim Mercedes' first pole position since the 2021 F1 Saudi Arabian GP.
However, George Russell knows that no points are given for being the top dog on Saturday and the Briton is locked in for Sunday's race at the Hungaroring.
Speaking to the media in a post-session press conference interview, the 24-year-old was asked if he thinks he can defend the win on a track where overtaking is difficult. George Russell said:
“Hopefully, we’re not planning to defend and we’re just driving off into the sunset. But I know the guys around me and even Max [Verstappen], they’re not going to make it easy. As I said, generally speaking, we feel like we have a faster race car.’’
He went on to say:
“This is a good place where you need a good qualifying, no doubt, but it’s still a circuit that if you have a faster race car, it counts for more than if you have a faster qualifying car. So if it’s a two or a three stop race, you won’t be able to defend, let’s say, because the other cars can go early, they can go late and they’ll find a way past.’’
George Russell fears losing Mercedes seat if he is outclassed by Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes teammate George Russell is fearful that he may get his 'ass kicked' by the seven-time world champion and lose his seat in the team if he fails to perform at the level expected of him.
The 24-year-old joined Mercedes to replace the departing Valtteri Bottas after languishing at the bottom of the F1 grid with Williams for three seasons.
Speaking about his move to the German team at the start of 2022 on the Beyond the Grid podcast, George Russell said:
“Signing a piece of paper to join the greatest team of this era, without doubt, is obviously a huge moment. But if I don’t perform, and I go and get my ass kicked by the greatest driver of all time, what does it mean? Because I’ll probably be out the door.”
Russell further said:
“It was a huge moment, it was a huge step on my ladder, but it’s sort of like the image of the guy climbing the mountain; he thinks he’s at the top and then he looks up and the peak’s miles away, and then you get there, and there’s another peak. That’s kind of the way I looked at it. There’s a lot to be to celebrate for a moment like that, but I want to be a World Champion, and I want to win races, and signing that contract didn’t guarantee anything.”
George Russell has a 7-6 record over Hamilton in qualifying this season. Heading into the 2022 F1 Hungarian GP, the 24-year-old is fifth in the World Drivers' Championship standings with 143 points while Hamilton stands in P6 with 127 points.
