George Russell says if Mercedes transpire to be the second-fastest team at this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix it will provide a “real confidence boost” to the side for the remainder of the year.
After a tough start to the season, Mercedes introduced an extensive upgrade package to its 2023 car in Monaco, featuring the highly anticipated addition of sidepods.
The revised car delivered the German marque’s first double podium of the year last time out in Spain, despite Russell starting the race in a lowly 12th position.
However, the Mercedes camp has downplayed its chances of a repeat in Montreal, citing that the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve provides a vastly different set of demands to those required in Barcelona.
Therefore, Russell contends Mercedes would be able to take a lot of encouragement away from this weekend if its W14 car ends up second only to the dominant Red Bulls.
“I think if we are the second fastest team this weekend that will be a real confidence boost for us going into the remainder of the season,” he said.
“Because if you look at it factually, you go from Barcelona that’s a very medium to high-speed circuits, a really smooth layout and you’re on the three hardest tires, whereas here you’re on the three softest tires, all low-speed corners and a really bumpy circuit with the curbs.
“So on paper, I wouldn’t say this would suit our strengths but we would take confidence out of that.
“We’re not really thinking about Aston Martin and Ferrari, our sights are set on Red Bull and Verstappen, and as satisfying as our weekend was getting a double podium finish, by Monday morning that was kind of history and you’re already looking forward to ‘When’s the next improvement? How are we going to close that gap?’
“Probably we still need to find half a second if we want to catch them up and overtake.”
Last season’s Spanish Grand Prix marked an upturn in form amid a troubled opening to the campaign for Mercedes, prompting hope internally it was back on the right path.
However, the Brackley outfit’s struggles to understand its W13 car continued throughout the remainder of the year.
Asked if he believes that Mercedes’ promising Barcelona outing won’t be a false dawn this time around, Russell replied: “Yeah definitely, we’ve got a very different car at this time this year when we look at the comparisons in Montreal or even Baku for example compared to what we had in Montreal this time last year.
“So we’ve learned a lot, understand a lot. There’s still more we need to get on top of, it’s still not fully sorted just yet, but I expect to be in a stronger position this week than we were this time last year. But still I expect probably Aston Martin to be pretty quick round here.”
Nevertheless, Russell says Mercedes must continue to find room for improvement, particularly when it comes to extracting more from its package over a single lap.
“Our qualifying game is not good enough, we are consistently getting outqualified by Aston Martin, Ferrari and Alpine, other cars here and there, and if we want to fight to absolutely always be ahead of them we have to find some performance on Saturday,” he added.
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