George Russell vows to ‘raise his game’ to keep up with Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes

Russell leads Hamilton in the Drivers Standings by 16 points but the seven-time world champion has outperformed him in the last four races

George Russell admits he is keen to “raise his game” at Mercedes this season with Lewis Hamilton outperforming him in the last four races.

While Russell - in his first season with the Silver Arrows after three years at Williams - is 16 points ahead of the seven-time world champion in the Drivers Standings, Hamilton has recaptured some form in the past month having finished on the podium in Montreal, Silverstone, Spielberg and Le Castellet.

Russell’s 2022 record of finishing in the top-five of every race succumbed to a first-lap DNF at Silverstone but he finished fourth in Austria and third in France ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, the final race before the summer break.

Yet the 24-year-old insists he still needs to “keep on improving” as he targets his first win in Formula 1 this season, with Mercedes finally having got to grips with the porpoising and bouncing which curtailed hopes of a Grand Prix win in the early stages of the season.

“Going up against the greatest driver of all time, where do you set your expectations?” Russell said, in an interview with the BBC. “It’s by no means been a bad start to the season, but I would still like to raise my game a little bit.

“If I’m performing against the very best in sport - and I want to be the very best - I need to be at the top of my game every single week. I need to keep on improving. I need to look at my team-mate and see if he’s consistently doing something better. And there are certain little things that he is probably consistently better at than I am, for the time being, that I want to improve on.

“I expected no less, and I think that’s just a natural part of an athlete’s or driver’s development... the results are good on paper. But I think every individual, you know if you’re performing at the top of your game or if you feel like you’ve got more to improve.”

Russell is yet to finish in the top-two this season despite four third-place finishes this season, with his battle against Red Bull’s Sergio Perez late on in France claiming a fourth place on the podium after he pounced at the end of the late virtual safety car period.

“It’s been a good start to the season, but there are definitely areas that I need to improve, and I definitely can improve, and I have been improving throughout the season,” he added. “So I guess that’s exciting for the future. But racing drivers aren’t patient. I want to be right on top of my game today.

“My approach is to try not to look at what the others are doing too much because I truly believe that you have to to get the most out of yourself. You can’t almost copy, paste what somebody else is doing. I’m just going out there to try and do my own business, to do the best possible job that I can. And if I’m ahead of Lewis, great. If I was a bit behind, that’s how it is.

“But I still believe in myself and I believe I’ve got the potential to win championships. It’s all about the mentality you have.”