George Russell sends Mercedes team praise as Silver Arrows maximise others' misfortune

Mercedes might not have the quickest car on the grid at the moment but they have done well to pick up an amount of points that few might have predicted for them, and George Russell has praised the team for delivering a reliable car in order to do so.

It’s been surprising seeing Mercedes struggling for form this year, given how dominant they have been for the best part of a decade, and so far they do not have a race win to their name this season with Ferrari and Red Bull looking quicker.

The Mercs, though, appear to have the upper hand when it comes to reliability over Red Bull at least, and they have picked up the pieces when their rivals from 2021 have had retirements – with three coming already for the RB18.

That said, then, it’s been an impressive level of damage limitation that the Mercs have achieved and Russell has praised his team for delivering a robust car that has been able to strike when others have dropped the ball.

“It’s credit due to the team for giving us so far, a very reliable car and we’ve got to be there at the end to capitalise from these results,” Russell said after his P3 finish at the Australian Grand Prix, which came about after another retirement for Max Verstappen.

‘”It’s definitely not based on pace but I think it’s been a respectable start to the season in terms of how we’ve managed to optimise our lack of performance.”

The positive for Mercedes is that if they are picking up these points now when the car is not as quick, come the moment it improves things will be far better for them in both championships.

And, with Russell in P2 in the Drivers’ standings and Mercedes in the same position in the Constructors’ it just shows you how good they’ve been at taking advantage so far in 2022.

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