At the start of the season, George Russell looked like an inspired signing for Mercedes, and a future world champion, picking up podiums and regularly outperforming F1 legend and teammate Lewis Hamilton.
In recent races, however, the young Brit’s reputation has taken a bit of a knock, with Russell being accused of ruining other drivers’ races in a recent spate of collisions that have affected the races of others.
The Mercedes driver has had incidents with both Mick Schumacher and Valtteri Bottas in Singapore, Zhou Guanyu at Silverstone and most recently Carlos Sainz last time out in Austin, forcing the Spanish pole sitter to retire after one corner.
Russell is looking to prove that these incidents are just a minor blip, rather than a true reflection of himself, by having a clean and successful race this weekend in Mexico.
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“I think I’m probably more focused on just getting back into a good groove and rhythm,” he explained.
“I think at the start of this year we had such a consistent run of results, and every single time we hit the track we were putting in good performances, whether it was on a Saturday or a Sunday, and everything seemed to be running quite smoothly.
“But these last three races, for various reasons, have been very scrappy, most of which on my behalf.
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“I’m probably just more focused on trying to have a clean last three weekends and the championship should hopefully sort itself out.”
Despite the recent run of unfortunate races, Russell still finds himself coming to the end of a very successful first year, currently sat fourth in the drivers’ championship.
He is ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, which is extremely impressive considering how superior this year’s Ferrari has been to the Mercedes.
With only three races to go and only 16 and 20 points to Sainz and Hamilton respectively, the Brit will be hoping to solidify his position in the standings over the coming weeks, before going in to an off season where Mercedes and Russell will be hoping that their hard work can provide a car more capable of challenging the Red Bulls and Ferraris in 2023.