Fernando Alonso has been outscoring Lance Stroll consistently this season. Nobody says that Aston Martin has built a car more favorable to Alonso. A great driver can even extract performance out of a car that doesn’t suit his driving style. Nonetheless, questions about the new Mercedes upgrades suiting Lewis Hamilton are being raised. However, George Russell puts the controversy to bed with a 2-word response. What is this response?

Lewis Hamilton expected Mercedes to build a competitive car after the dismal 2022 season. However, after the first race in Bahrain, Hamilton expressed his frustration by advising that the team did not listen to him when he told them that there were problems with the concept. Nonetheless, from that moment onwards, Mercedes started working on a new concept as asked by Lewis Hamilton. It was the Monaco GP where the B-spec Mercedes was introduced.

Ever since the introduction of upgrades, Lewis Hamilton has been the fastest teammate. Multiple comments about how he feels comfortable pushing the car more and more were made by the 38-year-old. Many people speculated that because of Hamilton’s criticism, the upgrades were developed in a direction favorable to the 7X Champion. However, George Russell has put that controversy to bed calling it a “pure coincidence”

George Russell suggests that there are very fine differences that decide who comes out on top between him and Lewis Hamilton. Russell suggested that in terms of performance, Mercedes has drivers who have minimal differences. According to Motorsport-Total.com, George Russell said, “I think of all the teams, statistically, we’re the one with the smallest gap between team-mates” [translated via Google]

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Nevertheless, George Russell looks forward to the upcoming races despite showing a subpar performance compared to his teammate in the last 3 races. Let’s see what Russell has to say about catching Red Bull.

George Russell suggests that Mercedes are a step closer to challenging Red Bull

During the initial races of the season, the leading Red Bull would finish a postcode ahead of the field at the end of the race. However, as we saw in Canada, the gap has been cut short from 40-odd seconds to 10 seconds. As Red Bull hit the aerodynamic testing limits, those further behind continue development. George Russell suggests that Mercedes are a step closer and will challenge Red Bull in due time. 

According to Motorsport-Total.com, George Russell said “If you look at the average distance, it seems that Red Bull has taken a small step back. Before, they were three steps ahead of us. Now just two more. I was recently told that they won 17 of the last 18 races. They only cruise through the area and don’t go to the limit at all. They’re doing a great job. But I hope it won’t take too long before we can turn the tide.”

What do you think? Will we see George Russell challenge Lewis Hamilton this weekend in Austria?

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