Williams woes will provide future F1 title fight advantage - George Russell

Williams

Williams woes will provide future F1 title fight advantage - Russell

Russell remains scoreless with Williams after yet more bad luck last time out

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Friday 2 July 2021 10:30

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George Russell believes the mounting disappointments he has endured during his time at Williams will stand him in good stead if he becomes embroiled in an F1 championship battle in the future.

The British driver's bad luck continued after he was forced to retire from a stunning eighth-place during last weekend's Styrian Grand Prix whilst pressurising Fernando Alonso for seventh.

Despite scoring on a one-off appearance for Mercedes in Sakhir last year, Russell remains scoreless with Williams in the three years he has been at the team which has led to him labelling the period as "mentally very difficult".

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"My first year, I just took it in my stride because I was just so excited to be in F1 and learning so much," said Russell.

"Obviously now, into my third year, I just feel ready to score some good results and I feel like the team really deserve it with the progress they have been making but mentally it is not easy.

"We are all winners, we are all here to win and it has been a bit of a rollercoaster this past year. Imola last year, Mugello last year, Bahrain obviously and Imola again this year, there has been a lot of difficult moments to deal with.

"I feel fortunate because hopefully, in the future, I will have the chance to fight for victories and world championships. I have experienced a lot more disappointments than others and I think it will make me mentally stronger.

"It will help me in the future because for sure, there will be some."

Williams hoping to "take advantage" of abnormal conditions

Russell's performance before his engine issue followed a strong week in France where he was able to finish 12th on merit, raising hope of a Williams revival.

The Briton, however, has warned against making a solid judgement on the true pace of the FW43B until on a more conventional circuit, rather than taking liberties from a short track such as the Red Bull Ring.

"We have so much confidence at the moment that we are doing a really good job, especially on the Saturdays, we have had some really strong performances," he explained.

"Confidence comes into me and then it goes into the team, we are understanding the car more and more and it is little things that make the big difference.

"One-tenth splitting five to eight cars or whatever on a track as short as this. So you have to minimise mistakes and if you do a good job, you can jump quite far up the order.

"Last weekend, it was bizarrely not windy at all and the weekend before it was very tricky with the tyres so we were strong for other reasons.

" I truly hope this can carry on but until we get back to a more normal circumstance, slightly longer circuit and slightly more windy conditions, we will then see the new real performance of the car but let's try and take advantage and score points this weekend."