‘They are holding back’: George Russell claims Red Bull can go even faster
Red Bull have won the first three races of the season but Mercedes driver Russell insists F1’s dominant team are actually ‘embarrassed to show their full potential’
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.George Russell claims Red Bull can go even faster than their current pace shows – but are “holding back” to avoid Formula 1 changing the rules to disadvantage them.
Red Bull, who cruised to the Driver and Constructor titles last year, have won the first three races this year, with Max Verstappen victorious in Bahrain and Australia while Sergio Perez was top of the podium in Saudi Arabia.
On Sunday in Melbourne, pole-sitter Verstappen dropped to third after Russell and Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton overtook him on lap one.
But Verstappen stormed back into first and built a nine-second advantage, with only a late red flag compromising his comfortable victory – though he did in the end keep hold of first place amid late chaos at Albert Park.
Yet Russell, who retired from the Australian GP due to a power unit failure, believes Red Bull are actually “embarrassed to show their full potential” in case F1 change the rules to help the other nine teams.
“For sure they’re holding back,” Russell told the BBC’s Chequered Flag podcast.
“I think they are almost embarrassed to show their full potential because the faster they seem, the more that the sport is going to try and hold them back somehow.
“I think realistically they probably have seven-tenths [of a second] advantage over the rest of the field. I don’t know what the pace difference looks like at the moment but Max has got no reason to be pushing it nor has Red Bull.
“They’ve done a really great job to be fair to them. We can’t take that away and we clearly have to up our game.”
Verstappen, however, dismissed Russell’s claim of ‘sandbagging’ – a term used to describe teams hiding their full potential – and insisted it was simply about tyre management at Albert Park.
“I mean, I think anyway, there’s nothing really they can do,” Verstappen told the BBC.
“I mean, we just try to do the best we can with the development of the car, but it’s also about pace management, because we didn’t really know – I think no-one really knew – how long that hard tyre would last.
“So it’s about just bringing it home because we had a bit of pace I think over the others, and there’s no need to try and gain half a second a lap and destroy your tyres to the end because you never know, a Safety Car can happen, red flags, like we had today. So yeah, it’s not necessary to risk all that.”
Verstappen now has a 15-point lead in the World Championship from his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez, while Russell is 51 points behind Verstappen already.
The next race, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, takes place from 28-30 April in Baku and is the first sprint weekend of the season.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments