George Russell Jokes About Radical Change But Still Doesn’t Believe It’ll Beat Red Bull

George Russell has joked about Red Bull's dominance.

Mercedes driver George Russell has joked about Red Bull's dominance during the 2023 season so far, saying that even if the Brackley-based squad removed their rear wing they would not be able to catch them. 

Russell had a run-in with Max Verstappen during the early stages of the sprint race on Saturday with the latter storming up to the British driver after the race where. Russell ran into the side of Verstappen putting a hole in his sidepod. Regardless of the contact, Verstappen overtook Russell and finished in third place. 

During an interview with Motorsport.com after the sprint race, Russell explained:

"We know what the speed difference is.

"I think we believe we could take the rear wing fully off, and Red Bull would still be quicker than us on the straights, and that's not even a joke.

"So we don't understand what they're doing. They've clearly done something incredible... Something very, very trick.

"And kudos to them for whatever they've done to achieve this straight line performance.

"But especially with the DRS, as I said, we believe we can take the rear wing fully off and they'd still be quicker than us. So something's not adding up from our side."

Russell was then asked if he felt he could have done anything to keep the Dutch driver behind, to which he responded:

"Yeah, of course, you can always do things better.

"But the fact is Max wasn't my fight in that position. He was always going to overtake at some point.

"So you need to pick your battles, and I picked my battle at that restart. And he didn't at the race start."