Russell’s remarkable admission: “Mercedes may ‘sacrifice’ entire season”
Even before the first race of this year, team principal Toto Wolff responded to Lewis Hamilton’s pessimism over the W14’s concept by conceding that the entire car must be reconsidered immediately.
Hamilton finished fifth in Bahrain, Russell was seventh, and neither were close to the race-winning pace set by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Russell thinks Mercedes’ plans to fight for the 2024 championship should begin now: “We’re here to win and we obviously want to optimise every single result.
"But if you give me a choice between fighting and having a chance to win races whenever that is, versus slow progress and never having that chance, you obviously choose taking those victories.
“So if we’ve got to sacrifice some races or part of a season to give ourselves a chance to get a car that can fight, whether it’s the second half of the season or even if it’s looking towards next year, maybe that’s what we’re going to have to do because clearly we are a long way behind.”
Russell believes that competition for Red Bull pair Verstappen and Sergio Perez will only fleetingly come on Saturdays and potentially never on Sundays.
“Red Bull have got this championship sewn up,” Russell said.
“I don’t think anybody is going to be fighting with them this year and I expect them to win.
“They should win every single race this season is my bet. With the performance they’ve got, I don’t see anybody challenging. They have got it easy at the moment. They can do what they like.
“They might not get on pole all of the time because we know that Ferrari are very competitive in qualifying. But when it comes to race pace I think they’re in a very strong position.”
Russell was responsible for Mercedes’ sole grand prix win of 2022, at the penultimate attempt in Brazil. He finished ahead of teammate Hamilton who spent the early part of last season testing how the team could rid themselves of porpoising, then went winless for the first time in his career.
One race into 2023, the feeling of pessimism within Mercedes has only grown.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
