Russell reiterates: Still the slowest car

Michelle Foster
George Russell

George Russell isn’t expecting miracles when Williams takes to the Albert Park circuit, saying the team still has the “slowest car” on the grid.

Williams was the big winner of pre-season testing, at least compared to last year.

The team made the biggest gains of all 10 teams, up by over a second per lap.

The Grove team was the only outfit to make such massive gains.

Russell, though, doesn’t believe it will put them in the hunt for a Q2 berth come qualifying as he still feels Williams is at the back of the pack.

“No doubt we’re in a better position,” he told RaceFans.net, “[but] I think realistically we are still the slowest car.

“I’m not going to get carried away with ourselves, but we’ve definitely reduced the gap.

“So that’s all we could have hoped for over the winter and we’ll go to Melbourne and see.

“But like I said, don’t expect to see us in Q2, Q3 sort of thing. We’ve definitely improved but expectations are all under control.”

The Brit, who is still chasing his maiden F1 World Championship point, is however hopeful that Williams can advantage when others get it wrong.

“Last year when we out-performed our car we were still qualifying 19th and finishing 19th,” he said.

“So I hope this year when people slip up and we perform well, that’s when we can take opportunities and we should be racing.

“But like I say, expectations are under control.

“Doing it in Barcelona when the test is one thing, going to Melbourne will be a completely different story.”

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