George Russell says Mercedes have a ‘totally clear direction’ for improvement

Russell has overpeformed in a struggling car this season but is confident the team know how to get better

Mercedes driver George Russell believes the future is bright for the team (AP)

Mercedes driver George Russell says the team now have a “clear direction” on how to develop their car after struggling this season.

Toto Wolff’s team struggled to compete in the early stages with many issues, including porpoising. Despite that toil, Russell is fourth in the Drivers’ Championship standings - two places ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

He secured third place at the Italian Grand Prix last weekend, despite it not being a track that suits the Mercedes machine, and believes that knowledge can help them take things up a level next season.

Russell said: “I think we understand exactly why at circuits like Zandvoort and Budapest we were competitive, and we understand why at circuits like this [Monza] and Spa we were uncompetitive. That doesn’t mean that we can solve the issues overnight.

“But we’ve got to keep on developing this car and next year will sort of be an evolution of this and I think now we do have a totally clear direction of how to develop the car.”

Russell spoke about Monza where he got his seventh podium finish of the campaign, with Hamilton claiming fifth. The Mercedes man said it wasn’t Red Bull who stunned them but another team.

Russell added: “[Monza] Definitely wasn’t our strongest race of the season by far, the car wasn’t feeling great, we lost quite a bit of performance since FP1 on Friday and we don’t really know why but I think the biggest thing was the pace of Ferrari surprised us.

“We expected Max and the Red Bulls to be competitive and exactly how they were this weekend and how they were at Spa but Ferrari caught us by surprise, so that is why we couldn’t really fight for that P2.”