Russell Mercedes strife eased by Williams experience

George Russell believes a tough three years at Williams has helped him to cope with Mercedes' wretched start to the season.

Russell joined the F1 grid with Williams in 2019 but it was not until last year that the Briton scored his first F1 points for the team at the 48th attempt.

He did, of course, score two points in his cameo Mercedes appearance in 2020 when standing in for Lewis Hamilton.

But Russell believes this harsh entry into the sport has equipped him with the necessary tools to cope with Mercedes' slide down the order.

“It has just been difficult. It’s a really difficult position for us as a team and perhaps with my struggles at Williams driving very difficult cars, maybe that has helped in some small regard," Russell explained.

“Q1 and Q2 for us now is massively important whereas previously for Mercedes that was a breeze, it was almost a build-up session getting ready for Q3.

“As I said, Lewis is going to come back incredibly strong, I have no doubt, and he is definitely going to be pushing me all the way.”

Russell "getting the most" out of Mercedes

After four races, Russell is the only driver to have an unblemished record of top-five finishes.

Conscious that this street has been aided by the reliability issues and errors of others, Russell added: "I think in terms of results, we’re definitely getting the most out of it and things have definitely fallen our way in these first four races.

“It gives me and I’m sure it gives the team confidence that when the car improves we will be there to get even more points on the board.

“But as I said before the weekend, we can’t sustain this level of these results if we don’t improve the pace of the car.”

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