F1 News: George Russell Happy To Leave "Worst Seasons Of My Career" Behind Him After Abu Dhabi GP Podium

"Ultimately, the car isn't quick enough," said George Russell.

George Russell believes that the decline in Mercedes' performance throughout the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend highlights why the 2023 Formula 1 season is one of the worst in his racing career, despite his P3 finish.

Russell thought he had a genuine chance to secure a pole position at Yas Marina after leading the final practice session on Saturday afternoon. However, in the evening qualifying, he ended up in fourth place, trailing Red Bull's Max Verstappen by 0.343 seconds.

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Despite suggesting that qualifying P4 was not a bad achievement, he did add that the day ended on a strange note as the W14's grip gradually faded. He told Sky Sports:

"A strange day, to be honest. I think ahead of this weekend, we'd have definitely taken a P4.

"I felt good in the car but after this morning, we seemed really strong and we thought probably pole was possible but we went out for Q1 and we just didn't have the same grip as we had earlier."

Considering the decline in performance, Russell believed he was concluding "one of the worst seasons of my career." 

"It's been probably one of the worst seasons of my career in terms of results. It's just been just a really scrappy, messy season.

"I don't think it's been through a lack of speed. We've had really strong pace in many, many races but just never achieved that result on a Sunday."

Russell couldn't offer a comprehensive explanation for the challenging year, stating that a combination of factors highlighted a performance struggle that Mercedes couldn't attribute solely to bad luck. He added:

"There's a reason every single race [for the issues], whether it's me crashing into a wall [to lose third place on the final lap in Singapore] or the rain coming down in Zandvoort on the wrong lap or the engine breaking down in Melbourne.

"It's just tiny little things which you can say 'Easy to rectify that'.

"But when it happens once or twice, you can put it down to bad luck. When it happens on maybe nine, 10, 11 occasions throughout the year, it's definitely not luck.

"Ultimately, the car isn't quick enough. We need to keep on pushing. When the competition's so high, one small mistake and you drop a number of places."