Future groom
It is a happy and serene George Russell who appeared at the press conference in Zandvoort for the resumption of the F1 season after almost a month of break. The Englishman from Mercedes has experienced a very complicated first half of the year, paying the price so far in the direct comparison with teammate Kimi Antonelli. Off the track, however, there has been good news, as Russell announced his upcoming marriage to his longtime partner Carmen Montero. The summer break, however, allowed #63 from King’s Lynn to present himself with the right mental state to face the second part of the championship.
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Between relaxation and comeback
“I tried to make the most of these weeks of rest, also thinking about the second half of the season which will be very intense – Russell commented – every weekend from now on will be important, you want to have positive momentum and there will be many consecutive races, even triples. There was a good period in the middle of the first part of the season, but then for various reasons things went badly in the last races. I want to restart trying to find a good rhythm. Doing different things in the car? I don’t want to think about it too much, I want to trust my qualities and maybe drive more instinctively. Maybe this is something I didn’t do enough before the break. I have to keep an open mind and see where this will take me. Fighting for the title starting from -59? I don’t want to think about it too much. We take one race at a time and anyway I have to improve my performance if I want to get back in the fight. This is my priority: if the performance improves, the gap will reduce, it’s very simple“.
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No orders
What is certain, however, is that Russell does not even consider the possibility of helping his teammate in the attempt to catch up with Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton, who has nine points more than Russell in the standings: “Team orders to help Antonelli? At the moment it’s not even something considered – Russell made it clear – we are not even halfway through the season. We have to push as a team, because we are behind our rivals in terms of development. Others brought updates before us and it will be interesting to see how it goes when we bring our developments: I hope they can push us back towards the results we were having at the start of the season. Obviously we are always strong, but Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren have gotten very close recently and are giving us a hard time”, concluded the Englishman.
