George Russell is hopeful Mercedes' long-awaited car upgrade at the Bahrain Grand Prix will further help his performances as he bids to build on his return to winning ways from Azerbaijan last week. Russell dominated the Baku event to not only secure his first win in seven races but also claim the maiden 'Grand Slam' of his Formula 1 career, meaning he led every lap from pole position and set the fastest lap. The Briton had been happier with his performances in Mercedes' W17 since the August summer break, yet he had still finished behind title-leading team-mate Kimi Antonelli in each of the previous three races, with Antonelli extending his championship advantage to 81 points after victory in Madrid.
But after reducing that deficit by 15 points last Saturday on a weekend that Antonelli finished only fifth after crashing in qualifying, Russell is feeling optimistic as he goes in search of the first back-to-back wins of his F1 career on the sport's return to Malaysia's Sepang International Circuit - a track neither of the title contenders have driven on before. "As I've really said this whole season, firstly I never really felt in a position to fight for the victories because I didn't feel that the performances were strong enough," replied Russell when asked if another win could sow some doubts in Antonelli's mind. "But now, finally, I feel I'm in a place where I can fight for victory week in week out.
"Of course, there is a big deficit in the championship but we're only two thirds of the way through. There's a third of the season to go and still so much can happen. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player "So I'm just going to go race by race.
I'm enjoying it more than I have done recently, just because I feel more at one with the car, and hopefully this new upgrade with a few characteristic changes are also going to play into my favour a bit more. So, bring it on." Discussing what had changed for him, Russell said that "I don't really feel lost anymore" and that his "confidence is back and growing again". "It's definitely been a conscious adjustment of my driving," he explained.
"I think I went through a few races when I was having to think how to make those adjustment, whereas now it's all a bit more intuitive and natural. "What I set out to achieve in terms of getting the car in a slightly better window, I'm now achieving without having to think about it as much, so I can just focus on driving fast." Russell reiterated that all the pressure was on Antonelli in the chase for the Drivers' Championship over the closing two months of the season. "For sure there's a lot of pressure in his position," added Russell.
"For any driver fighting for your world championship there's a lot of pressure. At this point of the season it is his to lose so, from my side, I'm just going to go out there and enjoy every race." Despite finishing only fifth at the last race, Antonelli remains in firm control of the world championship with his 66-point lead still the joint-second highest he has held this season. But the 20-year-old Italian said that the events of last week had taught him some valuable lessons.
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