George Russell: “When you put the hard work in and it pays dividends”

George Russell felt the pace shown by the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was positive, but there is still a lot of work to do to bring them closer to Oracle Red Bull Racing.

The British driver finished fourth last Sunday at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit behind the two Red Bull’s and Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team’s Fernando Alonso, but ahead of his team-mate Lewis Hamilton and the two Scuderia Ferrari drivers.

For a moment, it appeared that Russell would be promoted to the podium after stewards handed Alonso a time penalty, but when the penalty was overturned, he returned back to fourth.

But Russell was pleased with the improvements from Mercedes over what they were able to show two weeks previously in Bahrain, and it gives him a confidence boost heading into the rest of the season.

“When you put the hard work in and it pays dividends, you come away feeling satisfied,” said Russell.  “We finished ahead of both Ferraris on merit today and we know we’ve got a lot of performance to come soon.

“The gap to the Red Bulls is still considerable, but we’ll take the positives from the weekend, keep fighting as hard as we can and focusing on ourselves.

“It was an interesting race. After the Safety Car I was on the hard tyre and Lewis was behind on the medium. He had a bit more pace at the beginning, but I knew my pace would come at the end. Fernando deserved to be on the podium today and I was pleased with P4.”

“My set-up this weekend has been the biggest issue I’ve faced” – Lewis Hamilton

Team-mate Hamilton followed Russell home in fifth, the Briton going the opposite way with his strategy calls by starting on the harder tyre before moving to the medium in his pit stop.

Hamilton started down in seventh but believed a better result than fifth could have been possible had he got his set-up right during Qualifying, with the car still not feeling that great in race conditions either.

However, he was pleased that the tyre degradation they faced in Bahrain was not as harsh in Saudi Arabia, and to finish ahead of the Ferrari’s gives them a lot of positivity heading into the Australian Grand Prix at the beginning of April.

“We got some great points as a Team today,” said Hamilton. “George getting third [Fourth after Alonso’s penalty was overturned] is amazing and I was able to move forward from seventh to fifth, which is the main thing. If I had qualified better then maybe I could have got a better result, but we still got some points.

“My set-up this weekend has been the biggest issue I’ve faced. I got it wrong for Qualifying and it wasn’t good in the race either, so I struggled today. We were trying to go long on the hard tyre, but the Safety Car came out, so I had to pit.

“We just about managed to make the medium work, but it was a long second stint. We didn’t have the same tyre degradation as we did in Bahrain, though.

“We were a lot closer to some of those ahead and it’s great to be in the top five, ahead of the Ferraris. There is lots to work on but there are positives to take away from this weekend.”