On qualifying performance, George Russell was 11-11 in the head-to-head against Lewis Hamilton, but the younger Briton was often outgunned by his more experienced Mercedes team-mate in the races. Overall, Russell termed 2023 as “one of the worst seasons of my career” as Mercedes failed to make the strides it hoped for with the W14.
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He enjoyed excellent races in Spain and the Abu Dhabi finale, along with his Qatar recovery to fourth after the first-corner clash with Hamilton, but there were low points too. Unforced errors in Canada and Singapore knocked the wind out of his sails, particularly at Marina Bay during his pursuit of victory.
“It's just tiny little things which you can say 'easy to rectify that'. When it happens once or twice, you can put it down to bad luck. When it happens on maybe nine, 10, 11 occasions throughout the year, it's definitely not luck.”
This is Russell's assessment of the mistakes and ill-fortune that he faced over 2023. Results in 2022 seemed to be looking up by the end of the year, as the King's Lynn-born racer had chalked up his first F1 win in Brazil, but 2023 brought no such results. Mercedes went winless for the first time since 2011 as a result.
Source: Autosport