George Russell believes Alfa Romeo and Haas are now at an “attack distance” for Williams after facing both in the F1 Spanish GP.
George Russell believes Alfa Romeo and Haas are now at an “attack distance” for Williams after facing both at the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix.
The Briton was able to combine it with Alfa Romeo and Haas cars during the qualifying and race day of the first six rounds of the 2020 season, and was discovered again in the Barcelona match last weekend.
Russell finished 17th ahead of his Williams teammate Nicholas Latifi and Romain Grosjean, but believes grove-based team has advanced in their attempt to climb midfield.
“We don’t need to be here fighting for those last positions, however, since we’re tied with the Haas and Alphas, they probably still have their legs on them, but they’re within range,” Russell said.
“Add that extra motivation for me as a driver, the team, to get everything out of him and it’s going to keep everyone pushing even harder to see that we can get back to B-Class.”
“Right now we’re in Class C with Haas and Alpha, we have to keep pushing to get into Class B, but it’s clear that Mercedes and Red Bull are separated by a league.”
And Russell described the Spanish Grand Prix, in which he participated in wheel-to-wheel battles with Kimi Raikkonen and Grosjean, as one of the most satisfying races of his F1 career to date.
“I think it’s probably one of the most satisfying races I’ve ever done, even if the end result is normal,” he said.
“We may have been given a better end result in terms of time for another strategy, but I was satisfied that we rolled the dice, controlled to overtake Romain on the right track, we had a very smart war with Kimi, which, I know, is something I didn’t have, wheel-to-wheel racing: a pretty decent new start that wasn’t one of my strengths.
So, on paper, it seems like a pretty popular race for us, but given our absolute speed this weekend much worse than the last 4 races, I think there were many positive aspects to pull out of that from my non-public appearance and the delight gained.
“At the end of the day, it’s very, very complicated as a pilot when you’re constantly on the defensive.When you’re in a car that’s not as fast as the others, it’s very difficult to run against them I still enjoyed it.
“That feeling of running again, the tension of a guy you’re looking to overtake, the pilots in front of you who was looking to attack, was really fun.This was not a typical and general piracy race on P19.”
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