Ferrari’s upward trend hasn’t gone unnoticed at Mercedes—George Russell speaks of a new threat, while Toto Wolff acknowledges their strength
Following Charles Leclerc’s victory at Silverstone, George Russell sees Ferrari as serious competition in the title race. However, the Mercedes driver emphasizes that his focus remains on his own performance and not on his direct rivals.
“The Ferrari guys look really fast right now. So the game is on. We’re now in a close battle with Ferrari. It’s no longer just about Kimi and me—Lewis is still very close, too. We need to keep improving,” explains Russell.
When asked how big a threat he now considers Ferrari to be in the championship battle, the Briton replies that he isn’t giving it much thought at the moment: “To be honest, I’m not thinking about that at all because I have to take care of my own business and improve on my end.”
“After Monaco, I was still 68 points behind; now I’m leaving this weekend just 25 points behind. Of course, I’m happy about that. But it won’t last forever if our results and our performance don’t improve,” Russell continued.
Ferrari Impresses Wolff, Too
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is also impressed by Ferrari’s current form following the British Grand Prix and is shifting the focus to himself and his team. “We have to look at ourselves first. Ferrari said before the weekend that they would lack energy on this track. That wasn’t the case. They were a strong competitor, and I think we have to expect that for the rest of the season.”
In addition to the Italians’ competitiveness, Wolff also addressed the reliability issues at Mercedes. He made it clear that the team is willing to sacrifice some performance if necessary to improve reliability.
“We are an organization that is completely focused on performance. On both the chassis and engine sides, we try to get the most out of everything. I’d rather sacrifice a bit of performance and fix these minor reliability issues than be reliable but lag behind in performance.”
Looking back at the season so far, Wolff is nevertheless satisfied with his team’s record, as Mercedes has won seven of the first nine races. At the same time, he made it clear that, in his view, a perfect record would even have been possible. The team principal thus emphasized that, despite isolated setbacks, Mercedes continues to see the potential to remain at the top of Formula 1.