George Russell has declared that he will “continue to fight every race until it is mathematically impossible” not to win this year’s Formula 1 title.
The Mercedes driver follows his teammate Kimi Antonelli by 81 points in the driver classificationIn his last match in Madrid, the young Italian achieved his eighth victory of the season.
Russel he could only finish P5 at Madring and stated after the race that he was “not in the fight” for the title There are no more nine rounds left.
Ahead of this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Russell admitted he would keep fighting until the last opportunity, but that increasing his performance was the top priority.
“I’m going to keep fighting every race until it’s mathematically impossible,” Russell said Wednesday at media day in Baku.
“It doesn’t change the way I do my job. I want to try to win every race and get pole in every race.”
“That’s my goal, that’s what I’m working towards every weekend and what happens next will be that. Obviously there is a huge deficit, but it’s not even a consideration at the moment. Performance is the biggest priority.”
“I don’t think I was putting pressure on myself from a championship point of view before. I was putting pressure on myself from a performance perspective. I’m in this position in the championship because the performance hasn’t been strong enough.”
“It’s been the case for a while now that the pressure comes from trying to improve performance, rather than thinking I need to fight for this championship because you can only fight for a championship if you have the performance.”
Russell has not claimed a win since the Austrian Grand Prix in June, but admits that although results have not shown since the summer break, he has been encouraged by his pace over the last three Grands Prix, which has seen two podium finishes.
“I’m pleased with that progress since the summer break,” he added. “The race pace, which was a weakness, has improved substantially and has been present in all the races since the break.
“Now I feel more comfortable knowing that I can fight for great results. We will see between now and the end of the season how the points can fall.”