Russell: "Nothing that will put us in the fight" in Australian Grand Prix

Mercedes have started the 2022 F1 season on the backfoot. The winners of the last eight Constructors' World Championships are struggling to keep up with Ferrari and Red Bull with a performance issue on their car. Lewis Hamilton even failed to reach Q2 last time out in Jeddah, and his teammate George Russell isn't expecting any upgrades to bring them into the fight for the Australian Grand Prix. 

Big problems 

In terms of performance, Mercedes are significantly off the pace. In Jeddah, they were about a second behind the leaders as the faster circuit didn't play in their hands. With F1 in the first year of the current rules and regulations, the development curve is expected to be steep. At Mercedes, all efforts are on solving their major problem which they now understand. 

"We are a long way behind Ferrari and Red Bull. Further behind in Jeddah and we understand why, but when we had things more optimised in Bahrain we were still six tenths behind. We need to close that gap, nothing substantial this weekend that will do that. It will take time," Russell said during the press conference. 

"We have to be disciplined and patient because we are so far behind and the cost cap, we can't afford to throw things at it and trial and error. We have to trust the process. We have to bring the upgrades when we have total faith and confidence that they will do as they expect. That will be a number of races away. There is nothing that will put us in the fight with those guys, we just have to make sure we maximise the result which is being third fastest and no midfield cars sneak in between us. This will be the case for a number of races to come."

Mood inside the Mercedes camp

Russell, who is in his first year as a full-time Mercedes driver, went on to explain how the mood in the Mercedes camp is positive. Rather than feeling frustrated, he reports Mercedes are optimistic now they understand the problems. "Having the understanding and the belief we can solve it is an exciting place to be," Russell added.