Baku winner George Russell: “I never lost faith in myself”

George Russell is back at the top of the podium! The Mercedes driver was the beaming winner at Baku. For him, the victory in Azerbaijan is only his third of the season. After the season opener in Melbourne, Russell went through a dry spell without a win, before triumphing at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg – and now, at last, again in Baku. He has thus managed to reduce the gap to his team-mate Kimi Antonelli in the World Championship standings by 15 points to 66. That’s still a lot – but it shows it’s not impossible.

What was different about this race weekend? Russell: “I’ve now gained more experience with this new driving style that I’ve adopted. In every race since the break, I’ve felt that I’ve been getting better and better and feel more like myself again.”

“Now comes the decisive phase”

It probably also helped that his team-mate Antonelli started the race from 16th on the grid, struggled all weekend and had problems with his car. Russell put it plainly: “The plan now is to win every race. My team-mate has had an incredible season. He’s been virtually faultless throughout, but now comes the decisive phase.” It was, in fact, the first weekend of the season in which Kimi Antonelli had shown a glaring weakness: the young Italian had got too close to the wall in Q1 and therefore started the race from 16th place. Although he fought his way up to fifth place, he was never a threat to Russell.

Russell: “I’m just going to focus on myself, though. If I keep performing as I have this weekend, I’ll be happy no matter what happens towards the end of the season, because it’s been a really tough time for me, but I feel I’ve got through it.”

Russell: “I’m very proud of the resilience that I and my close-knit team of engineers have shown during the difficult phases of this year, because it took a lot of hard work to overcome the challenges and better adapt my driving style to the new car. Formula 1 is so gruelling that you don’t get a chance to practise things, but it’s starting to feel a bit more intuitive to me than it used to, and I’m gaining confidence. Especially on tracks like this, you can squeeze out just a little bit more under braking, get just a little bit closer to the walls. And it was a flawless weekend.”

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“I never lost faith in myself”

The Briton: “I never lost faith in myself; even in difficult moments, I knew there was a reason why I couldn’t quite keep up. It wasn’t as if I’d suddenly forgotten how to drive. I knew I’d get back to my best. I just had to be patient. That’s why I’m confident. Four races have passed since the break. In three of them I was on the front row of the grid, with three podium finishes from the four races. I feel that I can now fight for victory week in, week out.”