1
George Russell says the 2019 season is far from a write-off for the Williams team, despite its lack of pace so far this year.
The Grove squad has been unable to compete with any other team during the opening five races of the season, as it searches to fix the problems that have seen it decline in recent years.
MORE: Williams confident it has improved the FW42 | Chadwick joins Williams as development driver
Russell pointed out that the gap to the nearest car in Barcelona was reduced, which left him encouraged that the team can extract more from the year.
"It's definitely not a write-off," he said. "The fact is, we've got a huge amount of issues at the moment which we think we can resolve.
"Barcelona was the first real race of the season, in my opinion. Australia was a street circuit, Bahrain is a very specific circuit at night.
"China was freezing cold and Baku was Baku, we knew it wouldn't suit our car as we are slow on the straights. But Barcelona was probably the first true test, and we were four-tenths away from the next car."
Russell crashed at the end of the final practice session before qualifying but still managed to emerge for qualifying and set a respectable time.
"With all the issues that we've got, considering in FP3 when the guys got the car ready in an hour and a half, we didn' bring as many upgrades as the other teams, it's far from a write-off.
"If we do the job properly, we've got potential to not only close the gap but to fight with some people."
Russell added that it was difficult to predict if Williams can score points in 2019.
Last season, when it also ran for most of the year as the grid's backmarkers, it managed to score 7 points between Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin.
"On merit, who knows," Russell commented. "Like I said, it's definitely not a write-off and I think we can salvage something from this.
"We've definitely got a lot of performance in pocket but is a lot a second, 1.5 seconds? We don't know yet."
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
M. Verstappen
C. Sainz jr
C. Leclerc
Bahrain
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Saudi Arabia
Jeddah Street Circuit
Australia
Albert Park
Japan
Circuit Suzuka
United States of America
Miami International Autodrome
Monaco
Monte Carlo
Canada
Gilles Villeneuve
Spain
Circuit de Catalunya
Austria
Red Bull Ring
United Kingdom
Silverstone
Hungary
Hungaroring
Belgium
Spa-Francorchamps
Netherlands
Circuit Zandvoort
Italy
Monza
Azerbaijan
Baku City Circuit
Singapore
Marina Bay Street Circuit
United States of America
Circuit of the Americas
Mexico
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Brazil
Interlagos
United States of America
Las Vegas Street Circuit
United Arab Emirates
Yas Marina Circuit
28,764 comments on Mercedes
0 members have this team as their favourite
Tweets about George Russell
155,891 comments on Williams 38 members have this team as their favourite Tweets about Williams
Replies (1)
Login to replyJuJuHound
Posts: 352
I think the balance in Mercedes is under treat due to Bottas agressive attitude. To bring it back Ocon won't help due to his past duels with Perez which effected the team results. I think George is the right guy to join Mercedes.
Leclerc joined Ferrari after one season, so George can do it also.