Thirst for redemption
George Russell is chasing redemption in Monaco. The Briton won the Sprint in Canada but had to swallow a bitter pill on Sunday, with a retirement due to technical problems that took him out of the race while he was leading – albeit hounded by Antonelli – and caused him to drop to 43 points behind the top of the standings, held ever more firmly by the Italian. With journalists present in the Principality, Russell returned to talk about what happened in Montreal, starting from the sparks that characterized the duels between him and Antonelli.
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“There is absolutely nothing to worry about – explained the #63 of Mercedes – we have been told that we must be considered reliable and that is what we do. We are drivers, we push ourselves to the limit on every single lap and when we race against each other we push each other to the limit; naturally when you are sitting trackside, like those on the pit wall or even like Toto, it is very stressful to watch and you are tense because you cannot control what is about to happen, while you would like to be able to. But in the end [Wolff] has to trust us and he does. That’s how things are and so we will continue to battle with all our might. We know each other’s limits and it was positive“.
The duels with Kimi and bad luck
Regarding the retirement in Montreal and the bad luck that he says is haunting him, Russell now seems to have a ‘fatalistic’ attitude and did not fail to ‘jinx’ Antonelli: “Getting over it? It’s certainly necessary over the course of a 24-race season and it didn’t take me long to get over that result because, ultimately, it was out of my control. I arrived in Canada with one goal, which was to dominate every single important session, and that’s exactly what I did. I started on pole in both qualifying sessions, won the Sprint, was leading the race and had a good duel with Kimi; I was leading before the failure” the Englishman claimed.
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“I felt I couldn’t have done more in Canada, so in the end I achieved the goal I had set for myself. For the rest, it’s part of racing and if you look at anyone’s championship wins in Formula 1 or any series, I don’t think anyone in history has ever managed to avoid having some bad luck at some point. I remember last year Lando had a failure in Zandvoort and was disqualified in Las Vegas, two things out of his control. Verstappen in 2021 had a puncture in Baku and, probably, you could also say the incident at Silverstone; both could have retired, but he did and his rival won the race. So these things have always happened in motorsport. I don’t think Kimi will be here at the end of the season saying he hasn’t had some bad luck at some point. That’s how the game goes and I don’t let these things bother me“.
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