George Russell is convinced the pace step Mercedes showed across the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix is “real” and has elevated it back into contention at the front.
Mercedes entered the Montreal weekend adamant that it was now on a gradual correction course with its W15 having overcome its limitations from earlier this term.
The marque has adopted an aggressive development approach in recent weeks and a revised front wing in Monaco has helped to cure its previous balance struggles.
Russell delivered on encouraging practice pace to secure pole position and he believed he would have had a shot at the win had small errors not dropped him to third.
While Russell is cautious about the chances to compete with Red Bull on more traditional tracks, he’s claimed that Mercedes’ emergence arrived as no internal shock.
“I think Red Bull have had, you know, it’s no secret, they’ve struggled a bit with their car these last three races,” Russell acknowledged.
“So I think we need to see how their performance turns out in Barcelona, which is a little bit more of a conventional circuit.
“But this pace increase that we’ve seen from us this weekend, it hasn’t been a surprise to us because all the numbers back at the factory told us we’re going to be finding a big chunk of performance with these upgrades. So Barcelona is going to be interesting for everybody, but I’m confident we can be in the fight.”
Russell has reiterated his credence that Mercedes’ upturn is genuine and now thinks it can aspire to be in the battle with McLaren and Ferrari to hunt down Red Bull.
“I think Red Bull have struggled a little bit the last couple of races, yet they’ve still won two of the last three,” he repeated.
“So I expect them to take a small step when we go back to the European races on more conventional circuits.
“But I really think our performance step is true and it’s real. And I think we can be in this fight with McLaren.
“Let’s hope we can continue being in the fight with Max. And let’s see with Ferrari. They obviously had a bit of an off weekend.”
Although Russell led the opening stages, a mistake when Lando Norris passed him allowed Verstappen past and he went wide later on having repassed the McLaren.
Russell admitted that his slip-ups earlier in the race made him even more motivated to overhaul Oscar Piastri and team-mate Lewis Hamilton to earn a podium result.
“Those last three laps, I was so focused to get back on the podium because I felt like I let the team down a bit,” he conceded.
“Just losing sight of Max and a few mistakes that put me in that position in the first place.
“And always with Lewis is, you know, really hard and fair. When you’re racing one of the greats, you know that you can trust them. That was really great to see at the end.”
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