Russell still concerned by poor pace despite Silverstone podium

George Russell says his performances need to improve if he wants to fight for the Formula 1 drivers’ championship, despite finishing second in Sunday's British Grand Prix.

Kimi Antonelli won Saturday’s Sprint at Silverstone and was hunting down Charles Leclerc in the latter stages of the grand prix until he was slowed by car damage, and eventually dropped outside the points. Russell managed to salvage second place by avoiding a late pit stop as the race finished under Safety Car, but despite closing the gap to Antonelli to 25 points, he’s concerned by his own pace.

“The feeling was good, but the lap times were slow,” Russell said. “And there were things outside of my control that contributed a lot towards that, and things in my control. I'm still struggling to understand this car. I probably still leave this weekend, albeit extremely grateful to stand on the podium, I leave less satisfied than probably Canada, when I broke down from the lead.

“If I want to fight for the championship, the performances need to be better. I need to be better. I need to be working better with my team. We need to be maximizing everything. We've got a close fight now with Ferrari, so it's not just Kimi and I, Lewis [Hamilton] is still very close. It needs to be improved.

“I'm not even thinking about [the championship], to be honest, because I've got my own things I need to deal with and improve upon on my own side. I left Monaco three races ago 68 points behind and I leave here 25 points behind. So yeah, I would take it, but it won't continue like that forever unless the results, the performance, gets better.”

Russell admits he was ruing his luck again after a slow puncture took him out of the podium battle shortly after his first pit stop, only to have his fortunes change towards the end of the race.

“I don't really know how to sum it up, to be honest, because it's been a very challenging weekend," he said. "Things within my control not good enough, things outside of my control haven't been good enough, which has all resulted in poor pace.

“And then in the race, I was having a great battle with Max and Lewis, going against two of the greatest of all time, and I felt I could have passed Max. And with the straight-line speed over the Ferraris, I felt I could have held off Lewis as well. So P3 was probably a fair and would have been a good result behind Charles and Kimi.

“Then the puncture, I just couldn't believe my luck. I've gone beyond sort of anger and frustration now. And then if you told me I'm going to end up P2, I wouldn't have even comprehended how that was possible. So, I'm very grateful to have stood up on the podium.”