11 September 2023 , 06:42
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George Russell admits it will be "impossible" to say for sure that his Mercedes team will challenge Red Bull in the next couple of seasons.
Red Bull are dominating the Formula 1 world. So far this season, the Milton Keynes-based team has won every single race and is on course to perhaps become the first team ever to maintain a 100 per cent record across a campaign.
And their star driver Max Verstappen has been the main driving force behind that remarkable success. He has won all but two Grands Prix this season and is on a remarkable 10-race winning streak, while his rivals at other teams can only watch on in envy.
That includes those at Mercedes, so used to success themselves but in the midst of a lean period. The Silver Arrows have won just one race in the last two seasons, when Russell took victory ahead of Lewis Hamilton in Brazil last year.
Both drivers have signed contract extensions which will keep them with Mercedes until at least the end of the 2025 season. And they will share the same hope that, in at least one of those two upcoming campaigns, they will be able to go toe-to-toe with Red Bull.
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But Russell admits that there is no guarantee it will happen. "A projection is impossible to say because nobody would have projected the jump Aston Martin made over the winter," the Brit told reporters.
"Nobody would have projected McLaren to be second or third fastest car after their first five races, so what's most important is we continue to look in the mirror at where we can improve. I think with the Aerodynamic Testing Restriction, it's no surprise to see a team like Williams making good progress with their development with having more time in the wind tunnel.
"All of these factors and of course with the brilliance that we've got within our team, the goal is to be fighting for world championships next year. But we're not going to sit here, hand on heart saying: 'That's what we're going to be able to achieve' because we don't know what the others can do."
That cautious view is one shared by the team's trackside engineering director. Andrew Shovlin recently said: "It's encouraging [to see the gains of other teams] because we know that the engine is obviously doing a good job in those cars.
"We're working hard to try and move forward. I think the step McLaren made was pretty impressive. You can see that they've changed a fair bit on their car. But for us, we do need to close that gap to Red Bull. We're still developing the car – whether or not we could find the half a second that they look to have found, I don't know. That'd be a stretch target."