George Russell admitted that he tried “an excessive amount of” at occasions throughout his first season with Mercedes final yr and mentioned he “positively nonetheless has room to enhance”.
Russell surpassed seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton to safe Mercedes’ solely 2022 grand prix victory at Interlagos. Nevertheless, it sees loads of room for enchancment in its personal performances.
“The issues I all the time realized essentially the most had been these arduous races and, comparatively talking, failed or underperforming races,” Russell advised the media, together with RaceFans, on the launch of the group’s new automotive right this moment.
“Wanting again at these races, I can inform that a lot of the causes are due to working arduous. And that was an enormous lesson I realized, generally the tougher you attempt to the tougher you strive, generally the consequence simply would not get higher.”
He admitted that he pushed too arduous in some races final season. “You need to be very disciplined with your self generally in your strategy to figuring out how arduous to push your self.
“For those who’ve been to the fitness center day-after-day and are maxing out bench presses day-after-day, you are in all probability going to injure your self in some unspecified time in the future. It isn’t the simplest strategy to get stronger.
“It is consultant of the race. For those who exit and drive furiously, pushing your limits each lap, that is not the quickest strategy to drive. These races had been in all probability justification for me,” added Russell.
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Realizing that he had enhancements to make in his personal driving stored Russell motivated for subsequent season. “I feel one of the best factor about Components 1 and this sport is that it is always evolving and it is a new problem yearly.”
“There’s positively nonetheless room for enchancment and I really feel that it fills me with confidence as a result of I nonetheless felt that I used to be acting at a really, very excessive degree. Although I knew I had much more in my pocket.”
Regardless of ending final yr’s world championship forward of his teammate, Russell says there are areas the place he must step as much as tackle Hamilton.
“I feel the true downside might be simply tire administration,” he defined. “That is one thing Lewis is excellent at, maximizing races and getting essentially the most out of the tires all through a race.
“Being teammates with him that yr, seeing a few of his traits was actually rewarding for me. So I really feel like I am on a reasonably steep studying curve on this regard. However nonetheless, I really feel like I’ve much more to do.”
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