George Russell: We have too many meetings

      George Russell started from pole and was aiming for victory in Barcelona, but is satisfied with second place – his teammate's retirement allowed him to recover...

      Question: George, you were aiming for victory but finished second – how do you assess the race results?

      George Russell: This time I earned 18 points more than in the last two races [excluding the sprint in Canada]. Overall, the weekend went positively. I had a strong start in the race, gradually closing the gap to Lewis, who seemed to commit to a three-stop strategy quite early. But we ended up stuck on two, and then the car lacked speed – I’m not happy with how the Hard tires performed.

      Question: Were you able to fully unlock the potential of the car? If not, why?

      George Russell: I don’t have a precise answer yet. We need to analyze everything. You know, I think Lewis would have won this race anyway, although he was hindered by the virtual safety car, and I was lucky with Kimi's retirement. It’s concerning that our team and our engines have had many retirements lately.

      Question: What do you think about the threat from Lewis? How will you and Kimi fight if a third contender appears in the title battle?

      George Russell: At the moment, Lewis is ahead of me in the championship. Let's see what the situation will be in the next couple of races. They have seriously upgraded the car.

      Right now, everyone is improving a lot. Whoever brings updates first gains an advantage. We saw this with McLaren in Miami – they gained, then we and Ferrari. But for me, it doesn’t change anything. My goal is to give my all every weekend. Lately, that hasn’t been happening, but we’ll see.

      Question: You are a mature, experienced, fast driver, but this year you have to deal with many problems. How do you manage it? How do you control your emotions?

      George Russell: It’s not easy. We are in a very tough sport. We work every day trying to achieve our dream, and when there’s something you can’t control, it’s hard to accept. And when the result isn’t what you hoped for, it’s also difficult to come to terms with.

      We have to keep digging deeper, every day, reminding ourselves why we do this, remembering how Lando said, when we were younger, we looked up to people like Lewis and dreamed of being here. You know, 15 years ago, none of us could have believed that today we would share this podium. Yes, I would love to win – and that’s why we are all here.

      Question: Shouldn’t you have gone for the first pit stop later, starting on Medium? With a better strategy, you could have achieved more?

      George Russell: Lewis had great pace. If I were racing alone and there were no other drivers around, I would have run it differently. But you don’t race alone. You look at your competitors, and they force you to make risky decisions.

      The truth is, this time I wasn’t fast enough. I could probably have repeated Lewis's three-stop strategy, although that would have left me vulnerable to Kimi's two-stop strategy. I need to discuss this with the team.

      Question: What do you think about the results of this weekend in terms of the championship situation?

      George Russell: Honestly, I don’t think about the championship. Right now, my job is to get the most out of the car every weekend. This time on Friday and Saturday, I felt I did everything I could, achieving absolutely my best result on almost every lap I drove. I had a great start in the race. The first stint went well, but the last two stints on Hard were not good enough. Right now, I feel my performance wasn’t high enough, and I need to improve something.

      It’s a challenging track. This is the first race of the season where our tires wore out so much. The last six races had one pit stop. Here we had to make three. But in Austria, we will rethink everything. I will attack as much as possible until the end of the season.