Russell backs Mercedes fight Ferrari, Red Bull on merit at Silverstone

George Russell believes Mercedes can compete with Red Bull and Ferrari at Formula 1’s British Grand Prix, confident that the Silverstone Circuit will play to the team’s hand “a bit more”.

Mercedes has high hopes it can produce its most competitive weekend of the season so far, as it introduces its latest upgrade package to the W13.

The Brackley-based outfit also reckons Silverstone’s high-speed nature and smooth surface will allow it to extract more performance out of its car, after suffering with bouncing at bumpier tracks in recent races.

Mercedes did make clear progress when running at the last traditional venue in Barcelona as it got on top of its lingering porpoising issues, allowing it to show an upturn in form.

With high optimism inside the team, Russell has faith Mercedes can produce a competitive outing this weekend.

“I think when you look the last three races, they’ve all been pretty similar with regards to sort of slow speed, relatively bumpy street-style circuits,” Russell said, as quoted by Motorsport.com.

“So I think this high-speed nature of Silverstone, a smoother surface, will definitely play to our hand a bit more than it has done in the previous three events.

“But still, there’s no guarantees because as I’ve said before, every race we go to we’re sort of unlocking a different issue from the car. But we have relative faith that this will be a more competitive weekend for us, not only just with the upgrades, but just with the nature of the circuit.”

Mercedes has generally struggled to match the pace of Ferrari and Red Bull this year, but its performance deficit has looked to have shrunk, particularly in race trim.

Russell acknowledged Mercedes has shown more promise on a Sunday, and sees this trend