Russell admits McLaren 'the team to beat' at Italian GP with Mercedes behind on upgrades

Despite a strong showing at the Dutch GP last time out, with Russell taking a Sprint win before finishing P3 just behind teammate Kimi Antonelli at Zandvoort, the Brackley-based team have lost out to McLaren's Lando Norris in two consecutive races after a series of upgrades from the reigning world champions.

While rivals McLaren and Ferrari have opted for aggressive upgrade strategies throughout the season, Mercedes have been more conservative in their approach, with team principal Toto Wolff even claiming the current Constructors' leaders "haven't got the money" to match their competitors' rate of development post-Zandvoort.

Russell, who trails his teenage teammate by 59 points in the Drivers' standings - currently sitting P2 - is hopeful Mercedes can get back on top in the races to come with the arrival of upgrades, but has admitted that for now, McLaren are the grid's benchmark.

Asked on what he and the team could learn from Norris' win at Zandvoort, Russell said: "I think you can look at it from two angles. Did they underperform on the Friday and just reach their potential on the Saturday and did we maybe.... over performed on the sprints and we achieved very good results on a Sunday."

Despite many tipping Mercedes as favourites this weekend at Monza, given the challenges each team will have over energy management and deployment at such an energy-starved circuit, Russell is still not convince and wary of challenges from Ferrari and Red Bull, although admitting the Silver Arrows have a better chance of victory than at Budapest or Zandvoort.

He added: "I don't know if we can say we're favorites this weekend, but we probably have a greater opportunity than we've had in the last two races where it's been less about the power unit and more about the chassis and as I said I think we definitely have or had the best chassis and I think we will do again and in the upcoming races.